India’s Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna launched his campaign in the Shenzhen Longgang Chess Grand Master tournament in a sedate manner, settling for a quiet draw against Peter Svidler of Russia here on Thursday.
The World No. 14 with an ELO rating of 2758, playing white, began in an aggressive way, looking to catch his opponent by surprise. But Svidler, the World No. 20, defended smartly to take the game towards neutral territory. With the clock ticking away and time pressure mounting on both players, they decided to share the point after 30 moves.
Harikrishna was in the third spot on the points table on Day 1 of this Masters tournament at the time of writing the report.
The tournament, which is being played in a double round robin format, features five other Grandmasters. The winner will pocket a prize money of £12,000 while the runner-up and the third-placed will get £6,000 and £4,000 respectively.