Indian grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna suffered his first loss in the ongoing FIDE Grand Prix as he went down to Li Chao of China in the eighth round encounter at Geneva on Saturday. The world no 22 Indian, playing with black pieces, got into better positions in the initial stages of the game but lost the advantage due to a slightly miscalculated move.
“I made a mistake playing Ne6 instead of Bb7, and after that I had a few opportunities to hold him out but he played really well,” Harikrishna said, after the hard-fought encounter.
As the tournament draws to a close with only one game remaining, Harikrishna has four and a half points in his tally and is tied third on the leader board along with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Anish Giri, Michael Adams, Alexander Riazantsev and Li Chao. The 31-year-old from Guntur will take on Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia in his last game of the competition.
“He is a solid player and I will look to be more careful and play a good game today to finish better on the leader board,” Harikrishna said ahead of his clash.