Harikrishna's poor form continues in Crimea chess tourney

Crimea, Ukraine, June 26 (UNI) P Harikrishna continued his poor form and drew with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine in the eighth round game to remain at the bottom rung of the table in the Aerosvit International Grandmasters chess tournament here.

The Indian Grandmaster, who had so far won only once losing thrice and drawing four games, is now at joint 10th with three points in the field of 12 Grandmasters who are rated 2600 or higher ELO points. Only Ruslan Ponomariov, who lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, is below Harikrishna with 2.5 points.

Sergey Rublevsky, who also drew his game with Alexy Shirov, is still heading the leaderboard with six points, closely followed by Vassily Ivanchuk -- who beat Voloktin -- with 5.5 points.

Harikrishna played the King Pawn opening to which Karjakin responded with the Najdorf variation of the Sicilian Defence.

After the 21st move, both the players drew a sharp line with tactical complications and settled for a draw after 28 moves.

Harikrishna will play Alexei Shirov in the next round.

Round Eight Results: 1. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu beat Alexander Grischuk 2. Vassily Ivanchuk beat Andrei Volokitin 3. Viktor Bologan drew Alexander Areshchenko 4. Sergey Rublevsky drew Alexei Shirov 5. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov beat Ruslan Ponomariov 6. P Harikrishna drew Sergey Karjakin Standings after Round Eight: 1. Sergey Rublevsky (RUS) 6.0 2. Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) 5.5 3. Viktor Bologan (MDA) 5.0 4. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) 4.5 5. Alexei Shirov (ESP) 4.0 Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 4.0 7. Alexander Areshchenko (UKR) 3.5 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM) 3.5 Andrei Volokitin (UKR) 3.5 10. Sergey Karjakin (UKR) 3.0 P Harikrishna (IND) 3.0 12. Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 2.5 Round Nine Pairings: 1. Mamedyarov VS Nisipeanu 2. Grischuk VS Volokitin 3. Ivanchuk VS Bologan 4. Areshchenko VS Rublevsky 5. Shirov VS Harikrishna 6. Karjakin VS Ponomariov UNI XC PDS AY KN1910