Press Trust of India
Gibraltar, Feb 5: India Grandmaster P Harikrishna outclassed Padmini Rout in the ninth and penultimate round Thursday to set up a final round clash against tournament leader Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in the Masters section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess Festival here.
In what was a must win situation to keep himself in contention for top honours, Harikrishna gave a pleasing display of attacking chess and scored a chanceless victory over Rout, who anyway celebrated her maiden Grandmaster norm.
Nakamura was held to a draw by Axel Bachmann of Paraguay at the top of the tables and the American stays in lead on eight points out of a possible nine in the 1,75,000 Pounds Sterling prize money festival.
David Howell of England defeated Daniel Naroditsky of the United States to emerge as the lone player on 7.5 points and Harikrishna shares the third spot along with women’s world champion Yifan Hou of China, Nikita Vituigov of Russia and Bachmann who all have seven points each with just one round remaining.
The stage is set for what could be an exciting finale as Harikrishna meets Nakamura while Yifan will take on Howell in the last round.
Harikrishna had his task cut out against Rout and he showed little mercy with white pieces. After a quiet Queen pawn opening Harikrishna launched a king side attack and his rooks did the damage. The game lasted mere 24 moves. Rout, however, had reasons to be pleased despite the loss as she completed her maiden Grandmaster norm in the process.
A winner of an individual gold in Chess Olympiad in 2014, Rout seems to be growing from strength to strength and the performance here will also take her among the top 50 in the world women’s ranking.
Among other Indians in the fray, only B Adhiban is in with a chance for a top-finish after he played out an easy draw with highly regarded Peter Svidler of Russia. The Indian started with the queen pawn and it was a Grunfeld defense by Svidler in which the peace was signed in just 22 moves
Adhiban next meets Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria and a victory can still put him among top ten finishers. Yifan played the game of the day and is now set to break the 26-year-old record held by Judit Polgar of Hungary as the highest ever rated woman player. With her performance close to 2800 ELO here, the Chinese girl is also closing in on the 2700 ELO rating mark. Orissa’s Debashish Das defeated Nuri Kambez of Switzerland and he now has 5.5 points.
