Gulf News, United Arab Emirates
Aug 18 2004

Anastasian and Gleizerov emerge as joint leaders after third round

By A Staff Reporter

Abu Dhabi : Grandmasters Ashot Anastasian of Armenia and Evgeny
Gleizerov of Russia emerged as joint leaders with a score of 3 points
after the third round of the Masters’ Championship at the Abu Dhabi
Chess Festival.

Bocharov (left) and Kobalia during their third round match. ©Gulf
News
Grandmaster P Harikrishna of India scored an emphatic victory over GM
Safin Shukhrat of Uzbekistan to move into joint third spot in the
$16,000 tournament being played under FIDE’s swiss rules.

With six rounds still remaining in this 56-player event, six players
– GMs Dmitry Bocharov, Mikhail Kobalia (both Russia), Artashes
Minasian (Armenia), Marat Dzhumaev (Uzbekistan), Ghaem Maghami Ehsan
(Iran) and Harikrishna are half a point adrift with 2.5 points each.

A pack of 11 players, including top seed GM Evegeny Vladimirov of
Kazakhstan and GM Tejas Bakre, share the ninth spot with 2 points
apiece.

Harikrishna is known for his technical skills in the endgame and yet
again his strong point came to fore against Shukhrat who always
thought he was within striking distance of achieving a drawn
position.

Playing the white side of a Nimzo Indian, Harikrishna opted for the
Capablanca variation and went for a long game. Shukhrat fought quite
well in the first time control and it looked as though he would
survive White’s well-conceived onslaught on both flanks.

But once Harikrishna opened the position completely, even trading of
pawns at regular intervals failed to deliver the goods for the Uzbek.