Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna suffered a loss in the first game of the opening round of the FIDE World Cup against Cuban GM Vidal, here at the Hualing Hotel, late on Sunday night.
The World No. 20 Indian, playing with black pieces, started off on a dominating note as he looked to wrap up the proceedings quickly. But, a miscalculated move by the Indian gave the advantage away and the Cuban piled on the pressure from there on.
However, even after Harikrishna tried to bring his best defensive game to the board, Vidal took advantage of his attacking position and made the Guntur lad to succumb to it after 36 moves.
Harikrishna will now look to bounce back from the loss, when he takes on the Cuban in his second game of the first-round tonight and take it to the tie breaker.
If the 31-year-old Indian emerges victorious, he will either face his compatriot SP Sethuraman or two-time runner up at the World Cup, Ruslan Ponomariov from Ukraine in the second round.