Tata Steel Masters: Harikrishna loses in 11th round; Giri retains lead

P. Harikrishna slipped to joint-eighth in the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament on Friday following his defeat to Jorden van Foreest in the 11th round.

Harikrishna is currently on five points in the eighth position after 11 rounds.

P. Harikrishna’s decision to sacrifice a knight backfired and led to his defeat against Dutchman Jorden van Foreest in the 11th round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, in the Netherlands, on Friday.

The defeat saw Harikrishna (5 points) slip to joint-eighth position.

 

With two rounds remaining, Anish Giri (7.5) inched closer to his first major title after drawing with Magnus Carlsen. In the most interesting battle of the day, World No. 2 Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja fought all the way for victory but the eventual draw kept them half a point behind Giri.

11th round results: Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 7) bt P. Harikrishna (5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 6) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 7.5); Aryan Tari (Nor, 5) bt Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 6.5); Alireza Firouzja (FIDE, 7) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 7); David Anton Guijar (Esp, 4) drew with Nils Grandelius (Swe, 5.5); Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 4) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5); Alexander Donchenko (Ger, 3.5) drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 4.5).