Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna held Michael Adams to a hard-fought draw in his second-round match at the the FIDE Geneva Grand Prix at the Le Richemond Hotel late on Friday night.
Harikrishna, ranked 22nd in the world and playing with white pieces, started off aggressively and got into a better position, but was pushed on to the back foot courtesy a few clever moves from Adams, a Grandmaster from England.
Though Adams enjoyed an advantage over India’s No 2, he failed to make inroads and with time running out, the players eventually decided to share the spoils.
“I had an advantage in the initial moments of the game with a better position and then he gained a slight advantage,” Harikrishna said. “He offered a draw in a slightly better position for him and I accepted,” he added after the game which lasted for 38 moves.
With one and half points, Harikrishna is currently tied second on the leaderboard. He will now take on the world No 6 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov from Azerbaijan in his next round clash and started the tournament with a win over Russian Grand Master Alexander Riazantsev on Friday.
“I have played against him several times before, recently a few months ago in Shamkir which ended up in stalemate. It is always interesting to play against a player of his caliber,” the Guntur lad concluded.
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