Gopal loses to Nigel Short; Harikrishna joint fourth now

Gibraltar, Feb 2 (PTI) Grandmaster G N Gopal went downfighting against Nigel Short of England while P Harikrishnagot the better of Anthony Bellaiche of France in the eighthround of Tradewise Gibraltar chess tournament here.

On a day that saw Krishnan Sasikiran playing out a drawwith compatriot Deep Sengupta, Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine putit across Michael Roiz of Israel to maintain his half pointlead over Short and another Israeli Viktor Mikhalevsky.

With Ivanchuk on seven points from eight games, bothShort and Mikhalevsky have 6.5 points while Harikrihsna is inthe wolf pack six players on six points apiece, hoping tocatch up with the leaders with just two more rounds to go inthe 126000 Pounds Sterling prize money event.

Amongst the other Indians, Grandmaster Sandipan Chandawas held to a draw by Vernay Clovis of France despite playingwith the favourable colour while International Master VaibhavSuri and Eesha Karavade found their nemesis in Argentinean duoof Pablo Lafuente and Ruben Felgaer, respectively.

D Harika scored an important victory against MadsAndersen of Denmark that brought her 5.5 points and closeenough to vie for the top women prize of 10000 Pounds.

Arghyadip Das was the other winner amongst Indiansaccounting for English Philip Tozer who played with whitepieces.

It turned out to be a bad day in office for Gopal who wasoutdone from a Caro Kann defense game with white pieces. NigelShort has been trying out new openings here and Caro Kann wasanother addition to his repertoire. Gopal found the goingtough despite getting an optical advantage in the opening andgradually his position deteriorated after the queens gottraded. .