Harikrishna Among Four Leaders
By Arvind Aaron

World No.46 P Harikrishna scored a well deserved 72-move win against Mark Bluvshtein of Canada to move back to joint lead at the end of the fifth round in the 8th Montreal International category 17 tournament on July 24.

In a London, Colle system with the white pieces, white got a soft spot on g6 to land his queen and knight. Harikrishna who was white manoeuvred his queen brilliantly into enemy territory to win pawns. Bluvshtein hit back by queening first and threatening to mate. Harikrishna at one point had a queen less but had the game firmly in the pocket. He went on to win an enduring queen and pawn ending in 72 moves.

Harikrishna joined Kamsky, Ivanchuk and Tiviakov in the lead with 3.5 points from five rounds. Four rounds remain to be played. Sergey Tiviakov also joined the leaders beating Ukrainian emerging star and overnight joint leader Eljanov with the white pieces. Nigel Short broke the shells of the egg with a draw.

The results (round five): S.Tiviakov (Ned) 3.5 bt P.Eljanov (Ukr) 3, P.Harikrishna (Ind) 3.5 bt M.Bluvshtein (Can) 2.5, V.Ivanchuk (Ukr) 3.5 drew G.Kamsky (USA) 3.5, K.Miton (Pol) 3 bt P.Charbonneau (Can) 0.5, E.Sutovsky (Isr) 1.5 drew N.Short (Eng) 0.5.

 

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Published on 27.07.2007