India’s future in Chess certainly looks bright

Harikrishna Provides Delight For Indian Chess
SUBHAGATA BHATTACHARYA
4 JUL 2015

There is good news for the Indian Chess fans as Grandmaster P. Harikrishna won the 10th Edmonton International ChessFestival in Canada breaking into the top 20 in live ratings. And, our very own Vishwanathan Anand has moved back into the 2800 rating club for the first time since 2011 only behind Magnus Carlsen in the overall rankings.

Last year’s winner Ivanchuk failed to duplicate his performances at Edmonton this year with a score of 6.5 out of nine, GMs Wang Hao and S S Ganguly also finished with the same score of 6.5. Interestingly, these were also the only players that Harikrishna failed to win against.

While, Harikrishna can now afford a bit of well deserved rest, Anand will have to continue at his best to maintain his position as he is tied with Topalov at 2816 points and is closely followed by Nakamura with 2814 points.

P Harikrishna wins Edmonton International Chess festival

Harikrishna (7.5/9) won by a single-point margin and became World No. 19 with a rating of 2739.8 after his superb performance at the 10-player round-robin tournament.

The Indian GM started off in tremendous form with five wins on the trot. Facing China’s Wang Hao in the final match was definitely not an easy one; if Harikrishna would have lost to Wang, the title would have been claimed by the Chinese star. Wang possesses a wealth of experience in elite tournaments having beaten the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Viswanathan Anand and Hikaru Nakamura. True to reputation, Wang played in advantage for most parts of the game before Harikrishna tenaciously forced his opponent to a draw after 67 moves to win the Title.

Taking his performances into consideration, it is not difficult to say that Harikrishna might have sealed his spot in the 2700 ratings club with his consistent performances over the years and an excellent endgame technique.

India’s future in Chess certainly looks bright and Harikrishna might as well be the root of inspiration for budding Chess players besides Vishwanathan Anand.

Source: http://sportsrediscovered.com