Grandmaster and former world junior champion P. Harikrishna suffered a shock defeat at the hands of local hopeful Safarli Eltaj in the ninth and final round of Shamkir chess tournament here.
Harikrishna ran in to Eltaj, who was on a recovery path, and the Indian completely messed up a good position.
Playing white, Harikrishna had everything under control and was in a much better position but the Indian went haywire with an optical blunder that cost him a rook for a minor piece and eventually the game.
Shakhriayar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan emerged as the champion with his second fantastic win coming against Anish Giri of Holland.
Overnight co-leader Fabiano Caruana of United States played out a draw with Sergey Karjakin of Russian, paving the way for Mamedyarov to beat Giri and set up a play-off.
Mamedyarov won the first game of the play-off and survived some anxious moments in the second to win his maiden super tournament on the home soil.
Giri finished in a tie for the third place along with Sergey Karjakin of Russia while Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan defeated Yifan Hou of China to end on the fifth place on a fifty percent score after nine rounds.
Harikrishna had to be content with a joint sixth place finish. He is now 15 points short of becoming the new India number one after Viswanathan Anand.
Harikrishna will play in another super tournament in Danzhou, China this year.
Results: Final round: P. Harikrishna (Ind, 4) lost to Safarli Eltaj (Aze, 4); Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 6) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 3.5) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 4); Yifan Hou (2.5)lost to Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 4.5); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 6) beat Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5). PTI Cor CM CM 06051919
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