World junior champion Pendyala Harikrishna continued with his demolition act and downed Grandmaster Wang Hao in a short game to stretch his lead by a whopping 1.5 points after the end of the fifth round in the 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup Grandmasters chess tournament in Taiyuan, China.
Scoring his fifth straight victory, Harikrishna maintained his clean slate and is now followed by Tigran Petrosian of Armenia and Bu Xiangzhi of China, who both have 3.5 points each.
Following them another half point behind is Alexander Motylev of Russia and Wang Yue of China on three points, the former having an extra game in hand, while a pack of four including the world's youngest ever GM, Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, is a distant sixth on just two points.
Six more rounds remain in the category-15 round-robin tournament.
Harikrishna is having the time of his life and is naturally enjoying his brilliant form. So far the Indian has already gained 19 Elo rating points from the event.
Playing the black side of a Scotch opening, Harikrishna was in for an early surprise as Wang Hao deviated from the normal variations and went for an unwarranted attack at the cost of a weakened pawn structure.
The Indian spotted and capitalized on the weakness in quick time. By the 10th move itself, Harikrishna was rocking and on the 14th move Hao made another mistake leading to an absolute disaster.
As a result, the Chinese had to part with his queen and there were only minor problems left for Harikrishna to solve. The game lasted just 20 moves.
Petrosian was outdone by Zhoang Zhong of China, who played the white side of a Sicilian Rossolimo.
The opening only gave Zhong a minimal advantage, which he nurtured well to get a better endgame. Looking for some counter play, Petrosian lost an exchange and his hopes evaporated soon after. Zhong romped home in 50 moves.
Zhang Pengxiang of China eventually came out good against compatriot Ni Hua.
It was a Sicilian Sveshnikov that the latter failed to hold as black when Pengxiang exchanged queens in the early middle game. With his connected passed pawns on the edge of the board, Pengxiang displayed fine technique to wrap the issue in 49 moves.
Former world junior girls' champion Zhoa Xue's bad patch continued as she lost her fifth game on the trot, bowing to compatriot Bu Xiangzhi in another one-sided game of the day.
Xiangzhi employed the recently popular Albin counter gambit as black and found Xue completely off guard in the middle game. Playing against an isolated queen pawn Xiangzhi later unleashed a fine rook sacrifice and won in 33 moves.
The other two games of the day were drawn. English GM Luke McShane decided against pressing hard over Motylev while Wang Yue defended an inferior endgame well to hold Karjakin.
Results, round 5: Wang Hao (Chn, 2) lost to P Harikrishna (Ind, 5); Tigran Petrosian (Arm, 3.5) lost to Zhang Zhong (Chn, 2); Zhang Pengxiang (Chn, 2) beat Ni Hua (Chn, 1/4); Luke McShane (Eng, 2) drew with Alexander Motylev (Rus, 3/4); Zhao Xue (Chn, 0) lost to Bu Xiangzhi (Chn, 3.5); Segey karjakin (Uke, 2) drew with Wang Yue (Chn, 3).
The moves:
Wang Hao v/s P Harikrishna
1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. d4 exd4 4. Nxd4 Bc5 5. Be3 Qf6 6. Nb5 Bxe3 7. fxe3 Qh4+ 8. g3 Qd8 9. Qg4 g6 10. Qf4 d6 11. Bc4 Ne5 12. O-O Bh3 13. Bxf7+ Kd7 14. N1c3 g5 15. Qxe5 dxe5 16. Rad1+ Ke7 17. Nd5+ Kf8 18. Nbxc7 Kg7 19. g4 Bxg4 20. Nxa8 Nh6. white resigned.
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