FIDE Grand Prix: Hari stuns Aronian, joins leaders

The Indian now has two wins and four draws in the tournament.

Pentala Harikrishna will face Alexander Grischuk in the next round.

P. Hari Krishna pulled off the biggest victory of his career by stunning World No. 4 and top seed Levon Aronian for a share of the lead after six rounds of the Grand Prix chess championship here on Wednesday.

The 38-move victory, with black pieces, helped Hari join overnight leaders Alexander Grischuk (Russia) and Teimour Radjabov (Azerbaijan) at four points.

Hari, seeded eighth, faced the English Opening from the Armenian, who faltered on the 20th turn with a pawn-move. Hari was quick to seize his chance and found the right continuation. Aronian made two more moves of sub-optimal strength to hand over the advantage of Hari.

Hari, rated 2737 against Aronian’s 2809, captured a central pawn and consolidated the gains. After the exchange of queens, Hari planted his knight strategically and pushed his queen-rook pawn menacingly. This made a hapless Aronian give up.

Three more remains in the 18-player, nine-round competition.

The results

Sixth round: Levon Aronian (Arm, 3) lost to P. Hari Krishna (4); Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 4) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 4); Peter Svidler (Rus, 3.5) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 3.5), Dmitry
Jakovenko (Rus, 3) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 3.5) bt Ernesto Inarkiev (Rus, 2.5); Li Chao (Chn, 3.5) bt Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 2.5); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 3) drew with Michael Adams (Eng, 3); Richard Rapport (Hun, 1.5) lost to Alexander Raizantsev (Rus, 3); Salem Saleh (UAE, 1.5) lost to Hou Yifan (Chn, 2).