A much-needed victory eluded former World junior champion Pendalya Harikrishna in the final round and the Indian had to be content with third place at the Montreal International Chess tournament.
Harikrishna needed a full point to finish a clear first in the event but he could do little against Vassily Ivanchuk's fine technique and lost due to a slightly worse position in the middle game.
Harikrishna stands to gain around eight Elo rating points in the tournament while Ivanchuk, who won his third title on the trot in a span of less than two months, gained seven points.
The rapid rise of the Ukrainian in the past few months has seen his rating escalating to a whopping 2762 and with further gains, he is likely to be among the FIDE top three.
The second place went to Sergei Tiviakov of Holland, who played out a draw with local talent Pascal Charbonneau.
Tiviakov ended with six points, a half point clear of Harikrishna, who finished sole third.
Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine finished on a positive note, defeating Gata Kamsky of the United States in his final round duel. The Ukrainian who had beaten Harikrishna in an earlier round was a bit subdued in the second half but his final round victory paved the way for him to finish joint fourth alongside Kamsky.
Harikrishna played the black side of a Petroff defense but could not really equalise against Ivanchuk, who went for one of the topical variations. The Indian came under problems on the queen side in the middle game with little counter play and ended up losing a pawn. Seeing no way out, Harikrishna resigned on his 41st turn.
After an indifferent start that fetched him as many as three zeros, Emil Sutovsky finally found his touch to finish clear sixth on 4.5 points and is going to salvage his Elo rating from the event.
In the last round Sutovsky proved his true mettle against Miton Kamil of Poland, who finished joint seventh along with Mark Bluvshtein of Canada.
Pascal Charbooneau finished ninth in the category-18 10-player round-robin tournament while Briton Nigel Short was last with just two points.
Results, final round: Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 7) beat P Harikrishna (Ind, 5.5); Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 6) drew with Pascal Charbonneau (Can, 3); Gata Kamsky (Usa, 5) lost to Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 5); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 4.5) beat Kamil Miton (Pol, 3.5); Nigel Short (Eng, 2) lost to Mark Bluvshtein (Can, 3.5).
The moves: Vassily Ivanchuk vs P Harikrishna
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Bd6 7. O-O O-O 8. c4 c6 9. Re1 Bf5 10. Qb3 Na6 11. Nc3 dxc4 12. Bxc4 Nxc3 13. bxc3 b5 14. Bf1 Nc7 15. Bg5 Qd7 16. Ne5 Qe6 17. c4 Bxe5 18. Rxe5 Qg6 19. Qf3 f6 20. Rxf5 fxg5 21. Rxf8+ Rxf8 22. Qe3 Qf6 23. Rc1 bxc4 24. Bxc4+ Kh8 25. g3 h6 26. Bb3 Nd5 27. Qd2 Re8 28. Qd3 Rf8 29. Qd2 Re8 30. Qd3 Rf8 31. Rf1 Qd6 32. Re1 Qd7 33. Bc2 Nf6 34. Qa3 Rd8 35. Qc5 Qf7 36. Bb3 Qf8 37. Qxa7 Re8 38. Re5 Ng4 39. Rxe8 Qxe8 40. Qf7 Qd8 41. a4 black resigned.
