The Indian challenge at the World Chess Championship ended as Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna and International Master Neelotpal Das bowed out in the second round.

Harikrishna went out after a valiant effort against European champion and 2001 finalist Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine in the second round while Das lost in the first set of tie-beak rapid games against Armenian Grandmaster Ashot Anastesian.

Das had earlier held his famous rival to a draw twice in the normal time control in the two-game match but failed to keep the momentum ticking in the rapid chess.

India fielded five players in the championship but stalwarts Krishnan Sasikiran, Dibyendu Barua and Surya Shekhar Ganguly crashed out in the first round itself and with the ouster of Harikrishna and Das in round two the team will return home early.

The championship is being played under knock-out format with two games to start with and in case of a draw two tie-break games played in rapid and blitz chess.

Top seed Grandmaster Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria proceeded to the third round with back-to-back victories over compatriot Alexander Delchev. Also moving to the next round was Romanian Liviu-Dieter Nisipainu, who drew his second game against Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov after winning the first game.

Harikrishna lost both the tie-break games against Ivanchuk.

The Indian had beaten Chinese GM Xu Jun in round one and though he was clearly the underdog against Ivanchuk none had ruled out a surprise result especially as the Ukrainian is also known for his idiosyncrasies on and off the board.

However, this was not to be as the sleeping giant, as Ivanchuk is often called in elite chess circles, took control of the proceedings right from the first rapid game and went on to win both after Harikrishna tried too hard in the second game. 

However, the biggest upset of this round was the ouster of Commonwealth champion GM Nigel Short, who paid heavily for his first round debacle against Michal Krasenkow of Poland.

Short, who had dropped his rook in the previous game, tried his best to overcome a determined Krasenkow but steady defence, wherever required, and perfectly generated counter play by the Polish ensured the draw.

The youngest participant left in the fray, 16-year-old Hikaru Nakamura of the United States continued to impress. The teenager defeated experienced Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus 1.5-0.5 after drawing his second game.

The oldest competitor, Alexander Beliavsky of Slovenia, also made it to the third round following his 1.5-0.5 victory in the tie-break games against Mikhail Kobalija of Russia after both the games under normal time control were drawn.