Harikrishna loses to Eljanov

Grandmaster P Harikrishna lost to Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and surrendered joint lead after the fourth round in the Montreal International Chess tournament.

After a fine start in the tournament that fetched him two victories and a draw in the first three rounds, the fourth round turned out to be a bad one for Harikrishna, as the Indian got into trouble early in the middle game and never recovered.

As a result of his fine effort, Eljanov took joint-lead with GM Gata Kamsky of the United States and top seed Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, who scored his second successive victory in the event at the expense of out-of-form Nigel Short.

This was Short's fourth loss in as many games.

While all the three leaders have 3.5 points from four rounds, Harikrishna shares the fourth spot along with Mark Bluvshtein of Canada and Dutchman Sergei Tiviakov. Kamil Miton of Poland stands sole seventh on two points while Emil Sutovsky of Israel is next in line, a full point behind. Lower down is Canadian Pascal Charbonneau on half points and Nigel Short with no score.

Eljanov showed grit and determination in his victory over Harikrishna.

It was a Slav defense where Harikrishna was surprised by Eljanov's choice of variation and could not strike upon the right plan once the Ukrainian refused an unconditional peace proposal by not repeating the moves in the middle game.

As Eljanov continued to tighten his grip, Harikrishna lost control and while trying an active counter play sacrificed an exchange.

However Eljanov was already on top by this time and after grabbing the offered material he only had to find ways to coordinate his pieces. Once he achieved it, Harikrishna saw no point in continuing the game and called it a day in 38 moves.

Ivanchuk defeated Short from a fairly balanced position with black pieces. For Short the event is turning out to be a nightmare that will haunt him for a long time coming as the Englishman is a highly regarded player in top circuit and never once he has been tormented like the present tournament.

The game started with Short opting for a rather safe approach in the French defense and Ivanchuk apparently looked content with an equal position that he got after regulation exchanges. Short parted with his Bishop for a Knight before entering the endgame giving Ivanchuk a semblance of an advantage and the latter nurtured it well to reach a better endgame. Short still had his chances but his form deserted him once again.

Kamksy  had an easy time against other overnight leader Sergei Tiviakov who was simply outplayed. The Queen pawn opening gave Kamsky a slightly better position which enabled a queen side attack and the American gave no chances once getting on top.

In other games of the day, Emil Sutovsky opened his account defeating Charbonneau while Mark Bluvshtein held Kamil to a draw. Five more rounds remain in the category-18 tournament.

Results round 4:

Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 3) beat P Harikrishna (Ind, 2.5); Gata Kamsky (Usa, 3) beat Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 2.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 0) lost to Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3); Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 2.5) drew with Kamil Miton (Pol, 2); Pascal Charbonneau (Can, 0.5) lost to Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 1).

The moves:

Pavel Eljanov vs P Harikrishna

1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 dxc4 5. a4 Bf5 6. e3 e6 7. Bxc4 Bb4 8. O-O Nbd7 9. Qe2 Bg6 10. e4 O-O 11. Bd3 Bh5 12. e5 Nd5 13. Nxd5 cxd5 14. Qe3 Be7 15. Ne1 Rc8 16. Bd2 Bg6 17. g4 Rc6 18. Bb5 Rc8 19. Bd3 Rc6 20. Bb5  Rc8 21. Bc3 f5 22. exf6 Nxf6 23. f3 e5 24. Qxe5 Bd6 25. Qe2 Qc7 26. Rd1 h5 27. g5 Nh7 28. h4 Bg3 29. Ng2 Rf7 30. f4 Rcf8 31. Bb4 Bxf4 32. Bxf8 Nxf8 33. Bd3 Re7 34. Qf3 Bh2+ 35. Kh1 Bf7 36. Rc1 Qb8 37. Rce1 Rd7 38. Bb5. Black resigned.