Hari plays safe draw, languishes at bottom in Crimea chess tourney

Crimea, Ukraine, June 28 (UNI) With chances of top board finish already out of contention, P Harikrishna played out a safe draw with former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the tenth round game of the Aerosvit International Grandmasters chess tournament here.

After the penultimate round, the Indian now shares the bottom spot with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine with 3.5 points in the field of 12 Grandmasters who are rated 2600 or higher ELO points.

Playing with white, Harikrishna did not take much risks and settled for a draw after 36 moves.

Harikrishna has had a disappointing tournament registering only one win, four losses and five draws so far. He now plays Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine in the last round.

There is no change in the leaderboard with all the games ending in draws. The winner of the tournament will not be known untill the final round is played with top three players being seperated by only half a point from each other.

Russian Sergey Rublevsky is leading with seven points, breathing down the neck by Ukranian Vassily Ivanchuk with 6.5 points, while Viktor Bologan of Macedonia is third with six points.

Round Ten Results: 1. Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu drew with Sergey Karjakin 2. Andrei Volokitin drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 3. Viktor Bologan drew with Alexande Grischuk 4. Sergey Rublevsky drew with Vassily Ivanchuk 5. Alexei Shirov drew with Alexander Areshchenko 6. P Harikrishna drew with Ruslan Ponomariov Standings after Round Ten: 1. Sergey Rublevsky (RUS) 7.0 2. Vassily Ivanchuk (UKR) 6.5 3. Viktor Bologan (MDA) 6.0 4. Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (AZE) 5.5 5. Alexei Shirov (ESP) 5.5 Alexander Grischuk (RUS) 5.5 7. Alexander Areshchenko (UKR) 4.5 Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (ROM) 4.5 9. Ruslan Ponomariov (UKR) 4.0 Andrei Volokitin (UKR) 4.0 11. Sergey Karjakin (UKR) 3.5 P Harikrishna (IND) 3.5 UNI XC PDS DS1545