Corus: Hari scores, Anand draws again

P Harikrishna registered his second successive victory even as Viswanathan Anand and Parimarjan Negi drew again on the fourth day of the Corus chess tournament, at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Tuesday.

Anand drew his Dutch game with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in 33 moves after the players were left with a pair of rooks and four kingside pawns. The Indian ace goes into Wednesday's rest day with two points, sharing fifth place.

Anand is placed joint-fifth in the company of defending champion Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine, Leinier Dominguez of Cuba and Vladimir Kramnik of Russia.

Harikrishna (2.5) shocked top seed Arkadij Naiditsch of Germany in Group B.

Playing the King's Indian attack with white pieces, Harikrishna did everything right against the German.

Routine manoeuvres in one of the popular variations led to a passive position for Naiditsch on the King side and the Indian crashed through with a timely piece sacrifice.

Knocking down pawns thereafter he got as many as four pawns for the sacrificed piece and won in 42 moves.

The other Indian in the Group B, Parimarjan Negi also continued to search for an elusive victory as he too, like Anand, played his fourth successive draw.

Playing white against Wesley So of the Philippines, Negi faced the Sicilian defense and early queen exchange led to a balanced position. Further exchanges led to simplifications resulting in a drawn rook and pawns endgame. The game lasted 37 moves.

Ni Hua of China and Anish Giri of Holland continued to share the lead in this section after drawing their mutual encounter.

While the two leaders have three points out of a possible four, Harikrishna stands joint-third along with David Howell of England and Erwin L'Ami of Holland.

Parimarjan shares the sixth spot currently.

Former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta split point with Peng Zhaoqin of Holland in group C.

World junior girls' champion Soumya Swaminathan however succumbed to her third defeat in four games when she went down to top seed Li Chao of China.

Grandmasters Ray Robson and Li Chao share the lead in this section having 3.5 points apiece.

The lead margin is big as Abhijeet shares the third spot currently along with local hopefuls Robin Swinkles and Zhaoqin, Daniel Vocaturo of Italy and Kjetil Lie of Norway.

The battles in all groups will resume on Thursday after the first rest day of the events.

Results round 4:

Group A: Viswanathan Anand (Ind, 2) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 3) drew with Nigel Short (Eng, 1); Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 3) beat Loek van Wely (Ned, 1); Alexei Shirov (Esp, 4) beat Jan Smeets (Ned, 0.5); Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 2) drew with Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 1.5); Sergey Karjakin (Ukr, 2) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 1.5); Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 2) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 1.5).

Group B: Erwin l'Ami (Ned, 2.5) beat Varuzhan Akobian (USA 1); Parimarjan Negi (Ind, 2) drew with Wesley So (Phi, 2); Pentala Harikrishna (Ind, 2.5) beat Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 2); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Rom, 2) drew with Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 1.5); Dimitri Reinderman (Ned, 0.5) lost to David Howell (Eng, 2.5); Ni Hua (Chn, 3) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3); Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 1.5) lost to Tomi Nyback (Fin, 2).

Group C: Soumya Swaminathan (Ind, 0.5) lost to Li Chao (Chn, 3.5); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 2) beat Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 0.5); Kjetil Lie (Nor, 2.5) beat Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 2.5); Nils Grandelius (Swe,1.5) lost to Benjamin Bok (Ned, 1.5); Abhijeet Gupta (Ind, 2.5) drew with Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 2.5); Ray Robson (Usa, 3.5) beat Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 1.5); Robin Swinkels (Ned, 2.5) beat Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 1).