Third-place finish for Harikrishna at Biel Chess tourney

P. Harikrishna had to settle for third place at the 50th Biel International Chess tournament in Switzerland, after beginning the final day as one of the two leaders.

The 31-year-old lost to Frenchman Etienne Bacrot in the concluding round, paving the way for other leader Hou Yifan for China to claim the crown. The Chinese also became the first woman to win such an open tournament featuring some of the world’s top male players since the Judit Polgar (unlike most other sports, chess allows women to match their wits with men).

She defeated Nico Georgiadis of Switzerland in the final and finished with 6.5 points from nine rounds. Bacrot, on account of his victory against the Indian, scored six points. Harikrishna, ranked 21st in the world, finished with 5.5.

10 players competed in the round-robin tournament.

The standings

1. Hou Yifan (Chn) 6.5; 2. Etienne Bacrot 6; 3. Pendyala Harikrishna (Ind) 5.5; 4-7. Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr), Peter Leko (Hun), Nico Georgiadis and Alexander Morozovich (Rus) 5; 8. David Navara (Cze) 4; 9. Rafael Vaganian (Arm) 2; 10. Noel Studer (Swi) 1.