Harikrishna draws with Ponomariov

Pamplona:

Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna expectedly settled for a quick draw with former World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the eighth and final round game. He finished tied second in the 15th Ciudad De Pamplona International Chess tournament in Pamplona. Harikrishna, who ended the event with 4.5 points, tied with Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov who defeated GM Izoria Zviad of Georgia in the lone decisive game in the final round. However, Harikrishna's better tiebreak ensured that the Indian finished second. While Ponomariov, having done the hard work in the first seven rounds, was content with the draw in his last game, which was enough for him to still emerge clear first with five points out of a possible 8. The fourth place went to Sergei Tiviakov of Holland who scored 4 points. In the last round, Tiviakov drew with Laurent Fressinet of France, who finished fifth. Theoretical manoeuvres Zviad followed on sixth with 3 points after losing the last round and Dutchman Jan Timman was seventh on 2 points, just half a point ahead of the bottom placed Oscar De La Riva Aguado of Andorra. Harikrishna had little to worry about in the last round game despite playing black against the strongest player of the event. The fact that Ponomariov had white and needed just a draw left little to imagination. Playing the Caro Kann defense, Harikrishna faced the classical system and the game had barely come out of established theoretical manoeuvres when the players decided to sign peace after 15 moves. (PTI)