Grandmaster P Harikrishna was the only silver lining for India as the former World Junior champion advanced into the third round with a victory at World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia.
His compatriots K Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly squandered advantageous positions to perish in their round two tie-breakers.
Pitted against Giovanni Vescovi of Brazil, Harikrishna drew both rapid games of the tie-break and then, won a well fought first game of the five-minutes blitz to down his opponent.
Requiring a simple draw to annex match in the second blitz game, Harikrishna, who had black pieces, replied with c6 to the Brazilian's e4 opening and the game followed Caro Kann -- exchange variation -- and it took him just 18 moves to demolish his opponent's fortress to win with a margin of 2 points [4-2].
Harikrishna is now the highest-ranked junior contestant remaining in the World Chess Cup as this year's World Junior champion Mamedyarov Shakhriyar was eliminated by Evgeny Najer of Russia in the final game of the match.
Things, however were not as good for the Indians on other boards as Krishnan Sasikiran, who required a straight tie-break win to advance into the next round, was eliminated after squandering an advantageous position against Sergei Rublevsky of Russia.
Sasikiran started well and won his first rapid game but lost the second one and then lost one blitz game and drew another to crash out of the competition.
Having black in the second game, Sasikiran replied with c6 to Rublevsky's e4 opening and tried to over come his opponent in a Caro-Kann, Steinitz Variation game. Sasikiran did get a few opportunities when he gave checks to white king on 24, 32 and 36th moves but failed to force a win.
Thereafter it was Rublevsky's turn to go after the black king. He attacked from all sides and gave as many as 9 checks giving ample hint to Sasikiran to wind up and accept defeat which he did on the 69th move.
Thus the score being equal both the players played two five minutes blitz for a decision.
Sasikiran lost the first and drew the second game to Rublevsky and lost the 2nd round match 2.5-3.5 in favour of Rublevsky.
Also crashing out was Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly who, having lost the first rapid game of the tie-break, tried hard to equalise the score against Levan Pantsulaia but despite a better position in a game played on English, symmetrical lines he failed to materialise any of the 10 checks he gave to the white king in a long battle which lasted 57 moves.
Pantsulaia defended very well and repulsed all the attacks with ease.
Realising no way out to beat a determined opponent, Ganguly agreed for a draw and lost the match 1.5-2.5 to Pantsulaia.
Result, Round 2 (Tie-breaks): Gelfand, Boris (ISR) beat Felgaer, Ruben (ARG) : 2.5-1.5 Radjabov, Teimur (AZE) beat Kazhgaleyev, Murtas (KAZ) 2.5-1.5 Motylev, Alexander lost to Ponomariov, Ruslan (UKR) 1.5-2.5 Kamsky, Gata (USA) beat Bocharov, Dmitry (RUS) 3-1 Smirin, Ilia (ISR) beat Wang, Yue (CHN) 2.5-1.5 Harikrishna, Pentala (IND) beat Vescovi, Giovanni (BRA) 4-2 Rublevsky, Sergei (RUS) beat Sasikiran, Krishnan (IND) 3.5-2.5 Eljanov, Pavel (UKR) lost to Gurevich, Mikhail (TUR) 1.5-2.5 Pantsulaia, Levan (GEO) beat Ganguly, Surya Sekar (IND)2.5-1.5 Timofeev, Artyom (RUS) lost to Sutovsky, Emil (ISR)1.5-2.5 Tiviakov, Sergei (NED) beat Korneev, Oleg (RUS) 4-3 Najer, Evgeniy (RUS) beat Mamedyarov, Shakhriyar (AZE) 4-3 Van Wely, Loek (NED) beat Moiseenko, Alexander (UKR) 4-3.
