Abhijeet bows out of Chess World Cup

Indian challenge ended at the World Chess Cup following Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta's defeat against Chinese Grandmaster Xiangzhi Bu in the second game of the third round, here.

Parimarjan Negi and P Harikrishna have already been ousted from the USD 1.6 million knockout event.

It was a typical case of so-near-yet-so-far as Abhijeet at one point was just a right-move away from securing his place in the pre-quarterfinals.

Up against a Grunfeld defense, Xiangzhi, white, did pose a lot of initial problems and stood better in the ensuing middle game but Abhijeet kept himself in the hunt with some imaginative display of fighting chess.

As it happened, Xiangzhi missed the thread of the position and blunder to reach a lost position but Abhijeet, running short of time, did not find the winning move.

Later the Chinese was left to suffer a long time but the logical outcome should have been a draw in a Queen and minor piece endgame.

Abhijeet kept on looking for an illusive advantage and in the end paid heavy dividends as he himself walked in to a checkmating web when Xianghzhi was trying to draw through perpetual checks. The blunder on the 60th move gave Xiangzhi a 1.5-0.5 victory in the two games mini-match.

Top seeded Sergey Karjakin of Russia also ended his campaign when he was forced to concede a draw to top-ranked woman Judit Polgar of Hungary. Karjakin, having lost the first game with black, tried hard but Judit was simply at her defensive best.

Another notable victory was achieved by Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine who won with black pieces against Emil Sutovsky of Israel. Down a point and playing black, not many gave Ivanchuk survival hopes but Sutovsky went haywire early in the middle game to go down after playing tactically.

Surprisingly Alexander Morozevich of Russia signed his ouster papers quite early despite playing white. Alexander Grischuk had won the first game against Morozevich and it was a pleasant surprise for him when Morozevich himself proposed the draw barely into the  middle game phase.

The Azerbaijani duo of Vigar Gashimov and Teinour Radjabov made it to the round of 16 with comprehensive victories against Evgeny Tamoshevsky of Russia and Etienne Bacrot of France respectively.

In a curious incident, David Navara of Czech Republic conceded a draw to Alexander Moiseenko of Russia. Navara had incidentally touched two pieces in the middle game when moving one was leading to a lost position.

Moiseenko allowed Navara to continue as he pleased and when Navara got a winning position he gifted the draw to his opponent citing that he did not want anyone to believe that he won with 'unfair means'.

Complete results round 3:

Judit Polgar (Hun) beat Sergey Karjakin (Rus) 1.5-0.5;

Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) drew with Emil Sutovsky (Isr) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

Yaroslav Zherebukh (Ukr) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr) drew with Zahar Efimenko (Ukr) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Evgeny Tomashevsky (Rus) lost to Vugar Gashimov (Aze) 0.5-1.5;

Alexander Grischuk (Rus) beat Alexander Morozevich (Rus) 1.5-0.5;

Etienne Bacrot (Fra) lost to Teimour Radjabov (Aze) 0.5-1.5;

Gata Kamsky (Usa) drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

Fabiano Caruana (Ita) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Dmitry Jakovenko (Rus) beat Baadur Jobava (Geo) 2-0;

Vladimir Potkin (Rus) drew with Nikita Vitiugov (Rus) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

Mircea-Emilian Parligras (Rou) drew with Peter Heine Nielsen (Den) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

Le Quang Liem (Vie) drew with Lazaro Batista (Cub) 1-1 goes to tiebreak;

David Navara (Cze) drew with Alexander Moiseenko (Ukr) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Abhijeet Gupta (Ind) lost to Xiangzhi Bu (Chn) 0.5-1.5;

Leinier Dominguez Perez (Cub) drew with Igor Lysyj (Rus) 1-1 goes to tiebreak.