Pentala Harikrishna was held to a draw by Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in the fifth round of the Geneva FIDE Grand Prix on Monday.
The Indian No 2, who was playing with white pieces, began the game confidently as he had done throughout the previous four rounds. However, Nepomniachtchi put up a strong defence to stall the world No 22, before both players agreed to draw the game after 51 moves.
Commenting on the drawn result post-game, Harikrishna noted, “Today’s game was pretty tensed with both sides creating chances, turning it into a very complicated game. After a sequence of exchanges, we ended up drawn rook endgame.”
After the end of five rounds, with a break-day on Tuesday, Harikrishna is still joint-second in the points table with three points. Azerbaijan’s Teimour Radjabov and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk of Russia lead the points tally with three-and-a-half points.
