Harikrishna was held to a draw by Chinese Hou Yifan as the Indian could not break the solid defenses of the young Chinese in a prolonged heavy pieces endgame.
PAKS/HUNGARY: Top seed and defending champion Grandmaster P Harikrishna drew his ninth and penultimate round game to jumped into the sole lead to inch closer to his back-to-back victories in Marx Gyorgy Memorial chess tournament.
Harikrishna was held to a draw by Chinese Hou Yifan as the Indian could not break the solid defenses of the young Chinese in a prolonged heavy pieces endgame.
The half point, however, came handy for Harikrishna, who had defeated Yifan in the earlier round here, as he retained his sole lead over nearest Hungarian rivals Csaba Balogh and Peter Acs.
On a day that saw legendry Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland yet again running out of steam against Hungarian Ferenc Berkes, Balogh played out a hard fought draw with Acs to keep himself within striking distance of Harikrishna with just one round to come in this category-14 tournament.
Harikrishna with 5.5 points to his credit is only a half point clear of Balogh, whom he meets in the final round, and Acs, who has to tackle Korchnoi.
Berkes and Korchnoi are now joint fourth on 4.5 points while Yifan took her tally to 2.5 points after holding Harikrishna.
Things did not turn out as planned for Harikrishna as he could not get any opening advantage despite coming out with a new idea earlier in the Queen's Indian defense. Playing white, Harikrishna sacrificed a pawn earlier but when Yifan returned it, a few minor pieces had changed hands and the Chinese already had a reasonable position on board.
Trading all minor pieces, Harikrishna tried a few things in the queen and rooks endgame that surfaced but Yifan was quite up to the task in finding the right defence. The game was drawn after 57 moves.
Korchnoi was subdued by Berkes in a Queen's gambit accepted game where the former played black. After losing to Harirkishna in the same opening in round 7, Korchnoi restored his faith in the age old variation but this time found a different approach by Berkes quite tough to tackle.
Korchnoi got a level middle game but Berkes persisted with his attempts to attack and was rewarded when Korchnoi erred to find himself in a lost endgame. It took Berkes 47 moves to complete the formalities.
Results round 9: P Harikrishna (Ind, 5.5) drew with Hou Yifan (Chn, 2.5); Peter Acs (Hun, 5) drew with Csaba Balogh (Hun, 5); Ferenc Berkes (Hun, 4.5) beat Viktor Korchnoi (Sui, 4.5).
The moves: P Harikrishna v/s Hou Yifan
1. d4 e6 2. c4 Nf6 3. Nf3 b6 4. g3 Ba6 5. Qc2 Bb7 6. Bg2 c5 7. d5 exd5 8. cxd5 Nxd5 9. O-O Be7 10. Rd1 Qc8 11. Nc3 Nxc3 12. bxc3 d5 13. Bg5 Nc6 14. Qa4 O-O 15. Rxd5 Bxg5 16. Nxg5 h6 17. Nh3 Ne7 18. Rd7 Bc6 19. Bxc6 Nxc6 20. Rd6 Qxh3 21. Qxc6 Qg4 22. Qb5 Rae8 23. Rd2 Re7 24. Rad1 Rfe8 25. e3 Qe4 26. Qe2 Qe5 27. Rd3 Qe4 28. Rd5 Re6 29. R1d3 Qc4 30. Rd7 Qa4 31. Qd2 R6e7 32. Rxe7 Rxe7 33. Rd8+ Kh7 34. f3 Qc6 35. Qd3+ g6 36. e4 h5 37. Qd2 Kg7 38. Rd6 Qb5 39. Kg2 Qc4 40. Rd8 Qe6 41. Rd5 Qf6 42. h4 Kh7 43. Rd6 Qe5 44. Kf2 Kg7 45. Rd5 Qe6 46. Kg2 Qf6 47. Qd3 Qc6 48. Rd8 Qa4 49. Qd2 Qc4 50. Kg1 Qe6 51. Rd6 Qe5 52. Kg2 Kh7 53. Rd5 Qf6 54. Qg5 Qe6 55. Qf4 f5 56. Qd6 Qxd6 57. Rxd6 game drawn.
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