Shamkir Chess: Harikrishna outwits Mamedyarov in 2nd round

With seven rounds still to come in the super tournament, Harikrishna now shares the lead with Caruana with Giri likely to join on 1.5 points points each and can feel confident about the tournament.

Harikrishna played his first white in the tournament and had little difficulty in tackling the defences of Mamedyarov in what was simply a one-sided affair.

Grandmaster and former world junior champion P, Harikrishna crashed through the defences of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan in the second round of Shamkir 2016 international chess tournament.

After a hard fought draw with Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana of United States in the opener, Harikrishna played his first white in the tournament and had little difficulty in tackling the defences of Mamedyarov in what was simply a one-sided affair.

It was a storm following a lull in the opening round when all the games in this ten-player round-robin tournament had ended in draws. As many as three games ended decisively and besides Harikrishna, Anish Giri of Holland was close to be the biggest gainer as he was on the verge of winning against Sergey Karjakin of Russia who is set to challenge Magnus Carlsen in the next World Championship match.

Fabiano Caruana also won his second round game with black pieces and on the receiving end was Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine who again let his position slip towards the dying stages of the game.

With seven rounds still to come in the super tournament, Harikrishna now shares the lead with Caruana with Giri likely to join on 1.5 points points each and can feel confident about the tournament.

Harikrishna was pleasantly surprised when he faced the Pirc defense by Mamedyarov. The opening doesn’t enjoy high status among elite Grandmasters and Mamedyarov chose it probably because he was hoping for a complicated game with black pieces

As it turned out, if there were complications, they only favoured Harikrishna who was at the top his game on all counts. Mamedyarov survived a difficult opening and a tough middle game but when the endgame arose Harikrishna had a lasting advantage that he cashed on with his rook envasion on the seventh rank. The game lasted just 33 moves.

Caruana would probably be satisfied with a draw when suddenly Eljanov went berserk in the queen and rooks endgame. The American was soon able to penetrate the eighth rank with his rook and queen and soon it was curtains.

Results round 2: P. Harikrishna (Ind, 1.5) beat Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 0.5); Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 0.5) lost to Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 1.5); Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 1) drew with Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 1); Yifan Hou (Chn, 1) drew with Safarli Eltaj (Aze, 1); Anish Giri (Ned, 0.5) playing Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 0.5). PTI COR BS BS 05272145