World junior champion Grandmaster Pendyala Harikrishna crashed through the defenses of Tigran Petrosian of Armenia to return to his winning ways in the 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup Grandmasters chess tournament in Taiyuan, China, on Friday.
It turned out to be another fine day for the Indian stalwart after he was temporarily halted by Wang Yue of China in the previous round.
The victory gave Harikrishna another reason to celebrate as he extended his lead yet again to a whopping 1.5 points in the category-15 double round-robin event.
With just four rounds remaining, Harikrishna took his tally to an extremely impressive 6.5 points out of a possible 7 with his sixth victory in the tournament.
Following him solely is Chinese Grandmaster Bu Xiangzhi, who drew with compatriot Zhang Zhong.
Top seed Russian GM Alexander Motylev now has 4.5 points with an extra game in hand slated on the rest day, July 17, against Ni Hua.
Yue, Petrosian and world's youngest ever GM Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine are next in line on 4 points each while a full point adrift of them are Hua and Wang Hao of China.
Petrosian had shown a lot of promise prior to his game against Harikrishna but the Armenian simply could not find his form in this very important game against the leader.
Karjakin scored a quick fire victory over Chinese GM Zhang Pengxiang. Playing the white side of a Sicilian Taimanov, Karjakin went for a variation akin to the English attack and gained a dangerous attack against the centralised king after Pengxiang went wrong in the early middle game.
Karjakin wrapped the issue in just 26 moves.
Former World junior girls' champion Zhao Xue of China is turning out to be the punching bag of the tournament. For once she had a tenable position against compatriot Ni Hua that she let slip without much ado.
Nothing is working right for Zhao here as she lost her sixth game on the trot.
Hua started with the Ruy Lopez exchange and black got enough counter play in the middle game. However, as the game progressed, a few weak moves by Zhao gave white an easy attack and Ni Hua romped home in 33 moves.
Results round 6:
Wang Yue (Chn, 3.5) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind, 5.5); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 3) beat Zhang Pengxiang (Chn, 2); Alexander Motylev (Rus, 4/5) beat Zhang Zhong (Chn, 2); Bu Xiangzhi (Chn, 4.5) beat Luke McShane (Eng, 2); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 3) beat Zhang Pengxiang (Chn); Ni Hua (Chn, 2); beat Zhao Xue (Chn, 0); Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 4) drew with Wang Hao (Chn, 2.5).
The moves:
Wang Yue v/s P Harikrishna
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 d5 4. cxd5 Nxd5 5. e4 Nxc3 6. bxc3 Bg7 7. Nf3 c5 8. Rb1 O-O 9. Be2 b6 10. O-O Bb7 11. Qd3 Ba6 12. Qe3 Qd7 13. Bxa6 Nxa6 14. Qe2 Nc7 15. Be3 Qa4 16. Rfc1 Rac8 17. Qc2 Qxc2 18. Rxc2 cxd4 19. cxd4 Ne6 20. Rbc1 Rxc2 21. Rxc2 f5 22. d5 Rd8 23. Nd2 Nd4 24. Rc4 Ne2+ 25. Kf1 Nc3 2 6. f3 Kf7 27. Rc7 Nb5 28. Rb7 Rc8 29. Bf4 Bc3 30. d6 Re8 31. Nc4 Ke6 32. d7 Rd8 33. a4 Nd6 34. Nxd6 exd6 35. Rxa7 fxe4 36. fxe4 Rxd7 37. Rxd7 Kxd7 38. Ke2 Kc6 39. Kd3 Bf6 40. Kc4 h5 41. Be3 Be5 42. h3 Bf6 43. Bd4 Bd8 44. Bc3 Be7 45. Bb4 Bf6 46. Bc3 Be7 47. Kd3 Bd8 48. Bd2 Kc5 49. Be3+ Kc6 50. Kc4 f 6 51. Bd4 Bd8 52. e5 dxe5 53. Bxe5 Be7 54. Kd4 Bd8 55. Bf4 b5 56. axb5+ Kxb5 57. Kd5 g5 58. Bg3 Kb4 59. Ke6 Kc4 60. Kf5 Kd3 61. Be5 g4 62.hxg4 hxg4 63. Kxg4 Ke4 64. Bc3 Be7 draw agreed.
