FIDE Grand Prix: Vidit, Harikrishna out of reckoning for semifinals

Failure to win the penultimate round league games have put Vidit Gujrathi and P. Harikrishna out of reckoning for a place in the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix.

FILE PHOTO: P. Harikrishna (in picture) lost to USA’s Leinier Dominguez Perez.

Failure to win the penultimate round league games have put Vidit Gujrathi and P. Harikrishna out of reckoning for a place in the semifinals of the FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Berlin on Wednesday.

Vidit (2.5 points) drew with Daniil Dubov in 42 moves in Group C and Harikrishna (2) lost to Leinier Dominguez Perez in 51 moves in Group D. With Levon Aronian (4) opening a 1.5 point lead over Vidit and Dubov before the final round in Group C, he became the first to ensure a semifinal berth.

FOURTH ROUND REPORT

In Group D, Wesley So (3.5) leads Harikrishna by 1.5 points and enjoys a half-point lead over nearest challenger Dominguez.

Similarly, in Group A, Hikaru Nakamura (3.5) continued to lead Andrey Esipenko by half-a-point after they won on Wednesday. In Group B, the race is between Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Vladimir Fedoseev (3 each).

• Group A : Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3.5) bt Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 2); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 1.5) lost to Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 3).
• Group B : Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 3) drew with Vladimir Fedoseev (3); Richard Rapport (Hun, 2.5) drew with Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 1.5).
• Group C : Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1) lost to Levon Aronian (USA, 4); Daniil Dubov (Rus, 2.5) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2.5).
• Group D : P. Harikrishna (2) lost to Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 3); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 1.5) drew with Wesley So (USA, 3.5).