Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna scored an emphatic victory over GM Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan to move to the joint third position after the third round in the Masters' section of Abu Dhabi Chess Festival.
Grandmasters Ashot Anastasian of Armenia and Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia emerged joint-leaders with an absolute score of three points from as many games in the US $16000 prize-money tournament being played under FIDE's Swiss rules.
With six rounds still remaining in this 56-players event, six players -- GMs Dmitry Bocharov, Mikhail Kobalia (both Russia), Artashes Minasian (Armenia), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (Iran) and Harikrishna are half a point adrift of the leaders with 2.5 points each.
A pack of 11 players, including top seed GM Evegeny Vladimirov of Kazakhstan and GM Tejas Bakre, share the ninth spot with two points apiece.
Harikrishna is known for his fine technical skills in the endgame and yet again his strong point came to fore against Shukhrat, who always thought he was within striking distance of achieving a drawn position.
Playing the white side of a Nimzo Indian, Harikrishna opted for the Capablanca variation and went for a long game after early trading of queens.
Shukhrat fought quite well in the first time control and it looked as though he would survive white's well-conceived onslaught on both flanks but once Harikrishna opened the position completely, even trading of pawns at regular intervals failed to deliver the goods for the Uzbek.
In a tactical skirmish towards the end, Shukhrat sacrificed a piece to retain some drawing chances but Harikrishna's king march dashed the remaining hopes.
It turned out to be a mixed day for the other Indians in fray as GM norm contenders S Kidambi and Neelotpal Das lost their games against Anastasian and Artyom Timofeev (Russia) respectively.
While Neelotpal did not get many chances with his white pieces in the Sicilian Classical game, Kidambi put up stiff resistance before bowing down in a Slav defence game.
Also losing their games were Grandmaster R B Ramesh who spurned down many unconditional draw opportunities before losing to Maghami in a keenly contested game.
Ramesh went for complications right after the opening and had the opportunity of repeating the position in the middle game. However, the tenth GM of the country tried hard to break the defences of Maghami and ended up a piece less after the dust subsided.
The latest Indian GM Tejas Bakre had a smooth sailing over compatriot Eesha Karvade.
Among the Indian women in the fray, Aarthie Ramaswamy registered her first victory over Atousa Pourkashiyan of Iran, Nisha Mohota opened her account defeating Shadi Paridar, also of Iran while WGM norm holder Tania Sachdev went down fighting to Faruk Bistric of Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Complete Results: Round 3 (Indians unless specified):
Dmitry Bocharov (2.5, Rus) drew with Mikhail Kobalia (2.5, Rus); Evgeny Gleizerov (3, Rus) beat Pavel Kotsur (2, Kaz); Ashot Anastasian (3, Arm) beat S Kidambi (2); Evgeny Vladimirov (2, Kaz) drew with Ramil Hasangatin (2, Rus); P Harikrishna (2.5) beat Shukhrat (1.5, Uzb); Marat Dzhumaev (2.5, Uzb ) beat Mikhail Ulibin (1.5,Rus); Konstantin Chernyshov (2, Rus) drew with Yannick Gozzoli (2, Fra); Elshan Moradiabadi (1.5, Iri) lost to Artashes Minasian (2.5, Arm); R B Ramesh (1.5) lost to Ghaem Maghami Ehsan (2.5, Iri); Neelotpal Das (1.5) lost to Artyom Timofeev (2, Rus); Hichem Hamdouchi (1 .5, Mar) drew with Tissir Mohamed (1.5, Mar); Saidali Iuldacev (1, Uzb) lost to Sergey Kayumov (2, Uzb); Tahir Vakhidov (1.5, Uzb) drew with Jasim A.R.Saleh (1.5, Uze); Tejas Bakre (2) beat Eesha Karavade (1); Faruk Bistric (2, Bih) beat Tania Sachdev (1); Alexander Raetsky (1.5, Rus) drew with Tal eb Moussa (1.5, Uae); Mahjoob Morteza (2, Iri) beat Saleh Najueb (1, Uae); Zeinab Mamediarova (1.5, Aze) drew with Imad Hakki (1.5, Syr); Al-Tamimi Hamad (1, Qat) lost to Kivanc Haznedaroglu (1.5, Tur); Abdullah Hassan (0.5, Uae) lost to Jesper Lauridsen (1.5, Den); Julia Mashinskaya (1, Rus) drew with Firuza Velikhanli (1, Aze); Nezad Husein Aziz (1, Qat) drew with James Coleman (1, Eng); Amer Mohamed (1, Egy) drew with Saleh Nabil (1, Uae); Aarthie Ramaswamy (1.5) beat Atousa Pourkashiyan (0.5, Iri); Yahya Mohamed Saleh (0.5, Uae) lost to Adina-Maria Bogza (1.5, Rom); Shadi Paridar (0, Iri ) lost to Nisha Mohota (1); Mohamed Hossein (1, UAE) beat Illijin Neboisa (0, Rom); Khalil Ibrahim (0, UAE) lost to Tayeb Suhail (1, UAE).
