Harikrishna shares lead with Barua

Grandmasters Pendyala Harikrishna and Dibyendu Barua shared the lead at the end of the ninth round in the of Bharat Petroleum 39th National 'A' chess championship in Nagpur on Friday.

Harikrishna was lucky to escape with a draw while Barua got the better of GM Pravin Thipsay.

The duo are closely followed by S S Ganguly, who has 6.5 points to his credit.

Friday's programme saw seven out of ten games end in draws.

Woman International Master Swati Ghate, playing white against Harikrishna, opened with her king pawn and found India's youngest Grandmaster playing Owen's defence. Ghate gained space advantage and to restrict her, Hariskrishna was forced to close the position.

With five pawns locked in a chain, the position got closed and after exchange of the rook pairs, a draw appeared imminent. However, Ghate sacrified her knight at the an appropriate juncture and got four pawns in return. Thereafter Harikrishna had to be on the defensive. The game went into sudden death with a huge plus for Ghate but she faltered and missed a winning continuation and instead drew by repetition of moves.

Barua opened with his king pawn and faced the Sicilian defence of GM Thipsay. Taking more time over the opening moves proved to be undoing of Thipsay. Barua did not have to do anything special as Thipsay came under time pressure and handed Barua an easy victory in just 27 moves.