Wijk aan Zee Title For Harikrishna

By Aavind Aaron

Pentala Harikrishna of Hyderabad won the Tata Steel Grand Master Chess Tournament that concluded at Wijk aan Zee on Jan 29, 2012. In the final round he drew to ensure first place in the closed Grand Master Group B.

Harikrishna, from Guntur, who has since moved to Hyderabad won six games and drew six to total 9/13. He also suffered one defeat. In the same Grand Master Group B of 2001, Harikrishna completed a Grand Master norm. He led from the start this time and made use of the soft pairing to gain lead and did well to hold on to it. Sadly, in that Group, Harika took the bottom place.

Levon Aronian of Armenia won the premier group by a one point margin ahead of Carlsen and others. No Indian played in this section. Gelfand tied for the tenth place.

Former Indian champion, Adhiban, who is a qualifier finished third in the Group C.

Final placings:

Group A: 1 L. Aronian (Arm) 9/13; 2-4. M. Carlsen (Nor), F. Caruana (Ita), T. Radjabov (Aze) 8 each; 5-6. V. Ivanchuk (Ukr), H. Nakamura (USA) 7.5 each; 7 G. Kamsky (USA) 7; 8 S. Karjakin (Rus) 6.5; 9 Van Wely (Ned) 5.5; 10-12. Gashimov (Aze), B. Gelfand (Isr), V. Topalov (Bul) 5 each; 13-14. A. Giri (Ned), D. Navara (Cz) 4.5 each.

Group B: 1 P. Harikrishna (Ind) 9/13; 2-3. L. Bruzon (Cub), A. Motylev (Rus) 8.5 each...14 D. Harika (Ind) 3.5.

Group C: 1 M. Turov 10.5/13; 2 Tikkanen 10; 3 B. Adhiban 8.5; 5 Sahaj Grover 7 each; 8 Tania Sachdev 6...14 players.

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