Pendyala Harikrishna won the classical event of the Biel International Chess Festival in Switzerland on Wednesday but had to settle for the second spot overall.
It was a fine performance from World No. 26 in what was the first major chess tournament played over the board after the coronavirus crisis impacted the world sport some four months ago. He missed out on the overall first place by just half-a-point.
He scored 36.5 points from 28 games of classical, blitz and rapid combined. Poland's Radoslaw Wojtaszek came first with 37 points.
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Harikrishna, who now lives in Prague, was the best performer in the classical format (the equivalent of Tests in cricket). He scored 20.5 points, while England's Michael Adams came second with 16.5. Wojtaszek was third with 14 points.
Harikrishna finished rather strongly, posting four wins a row. In the final round, he defeated David Anton Guijarro of Spain, but Wojtaszek's victory against local lad Noel Studer dashed his hopes of winning the overall title.
Harikrishna had begun sedately in the classical tournament, drawing his first three games. Then in the fourth round, he registered his first win, against Vincent Keymer of Germany. He followed it up with victories over Wojtaszek and Romain Édouard of France going into the final round.
Harikrishna had also won the Chess960 tournament, which kicked off the Biel festival. Then he finished runner-up to Wojtaszek in the rapid event.
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