Harikrishna in World Chess 2nd round

Grandmaster and former World junior champion P Harikrishna marched his way in to the second round of the World Chess Cup with a sweeping 2-0 victory over Yu Shaoteng of China in the tie-break games of the first round.

Having drawn both the games under normal time control, Harikrishna played to his potential in the rapid games and gave no chances to the Chinese player.

Grandmasters Krishnan Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly had already made it to the second round after beating Alexei Iljushin of Russia and Hikaru Nakamura of United States respectively under normal time control games.

Of the two, Ganguly was more impressive in winning by 2-0 margin while Sasikiran had won with a 1.5-0.5 margin, coming on top in the second game of the mini-match.

The competition among 128 players is being played on a knockout basis till the third round after which the remaining 16 will play amongst themselves for the top places. The first prize is USD 1,00,000.

Harikrishna might have been a bit subdued in the games played under normal time control but was quick enough to regain confidence in rapid games played on Tuesday.

"In fact, I was just winning the first game itself but one miss and he clawed back into the match," Harikrishna said soon after his victory.

Harikrishna will now meet GM Giovanni Vescovi of Brazil in the next round while Sasikiran and Ganguly will have to battle it out with Sergei Rublevski of Russia and Levon Pantsulaia of Georgia respectively.

Top results:

Aleksander Sibriaev (Rus) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 0.5-1.5; Etienne Bacrot (Fra) beat Stanley Chumfwa (Zam) 2-0; Frhat Ali (Egy) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm) 0-2; Alexander Grischuk (Rus) beat Gaston Needleman (Arg) 2-0; Watu Kobese (Rsa) lost to Boris Gelfand (Isr) 0-2; Alexei Shirov (Esp) beat Kiril Kuderinov (Kaz) 1.5-0.5; Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat Diego Flores (Arg) 2-0; Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) beat Slim Belkhodja (Tun) 2-0; Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) lost to Ivan Sokolov (Ned) 0.5-1.5; Alexey Dreev beat Pascal Charbonneau (Can) 2-0; Zhao Yun (Chn) lost to Gata Kamsky (Usa) 0.5-1.5; Viktor Bologan (Mda) beat Carlos Matamoros (Ecu) 2-0; Aleksei Pridorozhni (Rus) lost to Joel Lautier (Fra) 1-1, 0-2; Lazaro Bruzon (Cub) lost to Nikolai Kabanov (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Vasquez Rodrigo (Chi) lost to Evgeny  Bareev (Rus) 0.5-1.5; Yu Shaoteng (Chn) lost to P Harikrishna (Ind) 1-1 , 0-2; Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) beat Wang Hao (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Lima Darcy Gustavo (Bra) lost to Konstantin Sakaev (Rus) 0-2; Andrei Volokitin (Ukr) lost to Cao Sang (Hun) 0.5-1.5; Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr) lost to Alexander Moiseenko  (Ukr) 0-2; Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) beat Alexei Iljushin (Rus) 1.5-0.5; S ergey Kudrin (Usa) lost to Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) 1-1,0.5-1.5; Hikaru Nakamura lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind) 0-2; Yuri Shulman (Usa) drew with Vadim Zvjaginsev (Rus) 1-1, 1-1, goes to blitz games; Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 1-1, 0-2. Evgenij Miroshnichenko (Ukr) lost to Oleg Korneev (Rus) 1-1, 0.5-1.5; Jobava, Baadur (Geo) beat Alexander Beliavsky (Slo) 1-1, 2-0; Andrei Istratescu (Rom) beat Lubomir Ftacnik (Svk) 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus) lost to A Khalifman (Rus) 1-1, 0.5-1.5.