Grandmaster P Harikrishna failed to square up as he drew the second game of the semi-final against GM Andrei Volokitn of Ukraine in the Lausanne Young Masters International Chess tournament in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Harikrishna, who had lost the first game of the two-game mini-match, had a tough task of pulling one back as the Ukrainian displayed fine defensive technique.
As the Indian was never really in the game to make it to the tie-break stage and settled for the draw to lose 0.5-1.5.
Harikrishna will now battle it out for the third place against former World Junior champion Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan while Volokitin will battle it out for the top honours against United States champion Hikaru Nakamura who defeated Mamedyarov in the other semi-final.
In the contest for 5-8th place, the status quo was maintained as higher seed GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Magnus Carlsen of Norway accounted for Georgian Nana Dzagnidze and German Elisabeth Paehtz fairly easily.
Carlsen will now meet Vachier-Lagrave in the decider for 5-6th places while the two girls will play for the 7-8th place.
Volokitin is known for his deep preparation and so Harikrishna opted for an unusual game with white pieces.
The King opening by the Indian, however, did not have a desired effect as Volokitin equalised quite comfortably in the middle game with thematic counterplay in the center once the middle game surfaced.
Harikrishna went for some exchanges leading only to a miniscule advantage for him in the middle game and Volokitin had no troubles in maintaining the balance. The draw was agreed to in 46 moves.
The other semi-final between Mamedyarov and Nakamura was stretched to the tiebreaker after the former scored a brilliant victory in the second game.
Playing the white side of a Grunfeld, the Azerbaijani was in top form through out this encounter as he played methodically to knock down a queen side pawn before parting his queen for two rooks. The endgame thereafter had no hopes for Nakamura.
This victory brought the match to tiebreak stage where two games under rapid chess rules were played. Nakamura was the first to show his steely nerves here as he carved out a fine victory with white pieces in the first game and despite trying hard, Mamedyarov failed to convert his chances in the second game to go down 2.5-1.5.
Carlsen was the other player who was stretched to the tiebreak stage by Paehtz but clearly emerged as the much better player with two straight victories in the rapid games.
Earlier in the day, the two had played their second drawn game under normal time control.
Vachier-Lagrave was leading by a full point coming into the second game against Dzagnidze and had little trouble in securing the draw with his black pieces. For the records, Dzagnidze had an extra pawn to boast off in the middle game but black had adequate counter play to liquidate to a balanced endgame.
Results: semi-finals Game 2 (Final scores in the end)
P Harikrishna (Ind) drew with Andrei Volokitin (Ukr) 0.5-1.5; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) beat Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 1.5-2.5;
5-8th: Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 1-3; Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) drew with Maxime
Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 0.5-1.5.
Pairings final: Volokitin v/s Nakamura
3-4th place: Harikrishna v/s Mamedyarov
5-6th place: Carlsen v/s Vachier-Lagrave
7-8th place: Dzagnidze v/s Paehtz
The moves:
P Harikrishna v/s Andrei Volokitin
1. e4 c5 2. Nf3 d6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. Be3 e5 7. Nf3 Qc7 8. a4 Be7 9. Be2 O-O 10. a5 Nc6 11. Bb6 Qd7 12. Nd2 d5 13. Nxd5 Nxd5 14. exd5 Qxd5 15. O-O Bf5 16. Nc4 Nd4 17. Bd3 Bxd3 18. Qxd3 Bc5 19. Rfe1 Rae8 20. Ne3 Qd6 21. Bxc5 Qxc5 22. c3 Ne6 23. b4 Nf4 24. Qc4 Qd6 25. Qe4 Qg6 26. Qxg6 hxg6 27. Nc4 Rc8 28. Nd6 Rxc3 29. Rxe5 b5 30. Ne4 Rc6 31. Nc5 Ne6 32. Nxe6 Rxe6 33. Rxe6 fxe6 34. Re1 Rc8 35. f3 Kf7 36. Re4 g5 37. Kf2 Rc2+ 38. Kg3 Rb2 39. f4 gxf4+ 40. Rxf4+ Kg6 41. h4 Rb3+ 42. Kh2 e5 43. Rg4+ Kh5 44. Re4 Kg6 45. Rxe5 Rxb4 46. Re6+ draw agreed
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