Harikrishna holds Dreev

Grandmaster and former World junior champion Pendyala Harikrishna settled for an easy draw with Russian stalwart Alexey Dreev in the first game of the third round in the World Chess Cup now underway in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia.

The only Indian left in the fray after Krishnan Sasikiran and Surya Shekhar Ganguly were ousted in the second round, Harikrishna was a young man on a mission in getting an easy draw with the Russian stalwart, who is highly regarded in this competition being played on a knock-out basis till the third round.

Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov's party in the competition eventually ended when world's youngest Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen of Norway won a keenly-contested game played on the top board. Cheparinov, quite young himself, who had ousted top seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the previous round was outdone by the Norwegian talent in exemplary fashion and will now have to win the return game to remain in the match.

There were no major surprises as many of the players preferred to relax in the first game of the third round after some grueling sessions in the second round match.

Taking it easy were the likes of Alexei Shirov, Boris Gelfand, and Sergei Rublevsky who drew without much ado against lower-rated opponents. Perhaps the biggest surprise was Azerbaijani Teimur Radjabov's loss against Dutchman Loek Van Wely wherein the latter played white.

Harikrishna drew white in the first game and certainly wanted to do better than achieving a draw with the favourable colour in the game.

However, as it turned out, Dreev's Caro Kann defence remained as impregnable as ever and the Hyderabad-based player decided against taking any undue risk after sacrificing a pawn in the middle game. The peace was signed when much play still remained, but both players were not sure about the outcome. It took just 25 moves for the peace agreement.

Complete results round 3 game 1: Ivan Cheparinov (Bul) lost to Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Emil Sutovsky (Isr) drew with Etienne Bacrot (Fra); Levon Aronian (Arm) beat Alexander Areshchenko (Ukr); Yuri Shulman (USA) drew with Alexander Grischuk (Rus); Boris Gelfand (Isr) drew with Levan Pantsulaia (Geo); Mikhail Gurevich (Tur) drew with Alexei Shirov (Esp); Jobava Baadur (Geo) drew with Sergei Rublevsky (Rus); Loek Van Wely (Ned) beat Teimur Radjabov (Aze); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) beat Xu, Jun (Chn); Konstantin Sakaev (Rus) beat Sergei Tiviakov (Ned); Ivan Sokolov (Ned) lost to Vladimir Malakhov (Rus); P Harikrishna (Ind) drew with Alexey Dreev (Rus); Gata Kamsky (USA) drew with Ilia Smirin (Isr); Francisco Vallejo Pons (Esp) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr); Joel Lautier (Fra) drew with Evgeniy Najer (Rus); Evgeny Bareev (Rus) lost to Lazaro Bruzon (Cub).