Harikrishna wins Edmonton International

Harikrishna wins Edmonton International

The thing that makes this tournament special is that players rated just about 2100 get a chance to play against 2700+ opposition. This has been relatively successful with the strength of chess players rising in Edmonton and the Alberta province. There were five extremely strong grandmasters with an average rating of 2690. They were Ivanchuk (2733), Harikrishna (2733), Wang Hao (2704), Shankland (2656) and Ganguly (2625). The five local players had an average of 2268, which was more than 400 points less than the GMs. The five players were IM Aman Hambleton (2446), FM Vladimir Pechenkin (2314), Dale Haessel (2180), Agnieszka Matras-Clement (2269) and Robert Gardner (2163).

Last year’s winner Vassily Ivanchuk was back in Edmonton to defend his title…

…but India’s number two Pentala Harikrishna was just unstoppable

Harikrishna began the tournament on a superb note as he won his first round game against GM Samuel Shankland. This was followed by four wins on a trot and with a score of 5.0/5 he was already 1.5 points ahead of others. A draw with Ivanchuk in round six and against Ganguly in seven was followed by a win against Pechinkin in the penultimate round. It all boiled down to the last game. Harikrishna had a point’s lead over the field but if he lost his game against Wang Hao, they both would be tied on 7.0/9 and the Chinese player would edge past him on tie-break.

Right from the opening, the Indian player was in trouble. Wang Hao had a pleasant risk-free position and was pressing with ease. Harikrishna had to call upon his best defensive skills to bring himself out of the perilous situation that he was in. Finally he managed to do that, hold the draw, and win the tournament with a one-point margin.

Harikrishna and Wang Hao analysing that fateful endgame which decided the champion of the event

After the tournament, Harikrishna was scheduled to play the Greek Chess League (which has been postponed due to the 5th July referendum). In between packing his bags and catching the flight he was kind enough to answer a few questions for the readers of ChessBase.

Sagar Shah: Congratulations Harikrishna for winning the Edmonton International with a superb score of 7.5/9. How does it feel to win a tournament ahead of great players like Ivanchuk, Wang Hao, Shankland and Ganguly and that too with an extra point?

Pentala Harikrishna: Thank you Sagar. I feel happy to win Edmonton International by one point. I was leading from the beginning and at some point even had a one and a half point margin! Surprisingly it all came down to my last round against Wang Hao. Had he won the last round he would have won the event. In fact he had advantage throughout the game. I defended well in the end to escape with a draw.

Harikrishna receives the winner’s trophy from the organizer Micah Hughey

SS: The tournament had a weird format – five extremely strong grandmasters and five comparatively lower rated players (one IM, one FM, one 2200+ and two 2100s). Considering that you were rated nearly 300 points more than half the field, wasn’t it a risky decision to play in such an event?

PH: The idea of the organiser is to provide local players with a chance to play against top-class opponents. That is the reason why you have five strong GMs and five local players. I never thought it was risky for my rating until your question! Even now I don’t know if it was risky or not. I was given the opportunity to play a closed event and had heard nice things about the organizer and organization from other GMs who have participated in the tournament in the past. So, that was enough reason for me to play!

The second last seed of the event, Dale Haessel (2180) has
played in all the ten editions of the Edmonton International

SS: What was your aim for this event?

PH: I was preparing for each game as I do for every normal event. I had nice time and enjoyed playing there. That helped me to play good chess.

SS: You were the only player who could beat all the non GM opponents. (Shankland also defeated all non GM opponents but he lost to two GMs). What was your strategy when playing against them?

PH: I had five whites and four blacks for this event and I won all my white games except against Ivanchuk, although I had some chances in that game as well. I played the same way against a non GM or a GM. I had more whites against the Canadians, so maybe that helped a bit.

A day prior to the start of the tournament Harikrishna visited the Edmonton Chess Club and
played blitz against anyone who wanted to try him. Here he is facing a local player Tristan Tran-Ly.

SS: Samuel Shankland has been one of the most solid players in the world recently. At the World Team Championships he was able to draw against all the top GMs like Aronian, Gelfand, Leko, Grischuk, Ponomariov and also you. It must been a huge boost for you to win against him especially in the first round itself?

PH: Sam has been doing pretty well recently and he is improving as a player. He is very strong at preparation and a very solid player in general. It was nice to win against such a player in the first round.

Sam was not his usual solid self in Edmonton: he drew only two games, winning five and losing two.

SS: Let us discuss one specific position in your game with Shankland:

Our readers would do well to take ten minutes on the clock and
try to calculate the consequences of the move 32.c6 in this position.

SS: Here you came up with the beautiful combination starting with the move 32.c6. How did you understand that this was the critical position in order to do something concrete and also see that at the end you had the move 36.Qf1 which was absolutely crushing. Can you take us through your thought process?

PH: I saw that 31…Ra3-a5 does not work. Therefore I played 31.b5. My opponent missed 36.Qf1 at the end of the combination. 31…Rc3 is interesting but the computer points out that after 32.c6 bxc6 33.Nc3 dxc3 34.Rxc3 Qxd4 35.Qf2 Qxc3 36.Qxf5 white will be pawn up in an opposite colour bishop endgame which is probably winning [all these variations can be played over on our javascript board below].

SS: And here Ng5 was extremely strong. Instead you continued 37.Rxf8. What was it that you missed?

PH: I saw that 37.Ng5 Qb8 38.Qxf5 Ra1 39.Bf1 [ed: here 39.Kf2 wins] 39…Rxf1 40.Kxf1 Qb1 41.Kg2 Qb7 42.Kh3 g6. White will be pawn up but it is far from winning. The computer points out the cute trick here with 38.Bd5!! instead of Qxf5. After 38.Bd5 Rxd5 and now 39.Qxf5.Black does not have Qb7+ and White is clearly winning. The move I played in the game is winning too. It takes a little longer but I don’t mind!

SS: You raced ahead with a score of 5.0/5 and then played Ivanchuk in the sixth round. Knowing Ivanchuk, it was obvious that he would go all out to beat you, and at the same time it is extremely difficult to prepare against him as he plays all the openings that exist! How did you prepare for that game mentally and also chess wise?

The unpredictable Ivanchuk opens with 1.e4 against
WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement who recently moved to Alberta.

PH: I have played many games against Ivanchuk but it is hard to predict which opening he will choose. So when I play against him, I try to preserve my energy for the game by resting! It was an interesting game. He missed a trick in the early stages and his position became worse. However, he defended well.

SS: And against Surya Shekhar Ganguly? You had been travelling with him for many days before you came to Edmonton and also you have been training partners for quite some years now, preparing openings and working on chess together. It is extremely difficult to play against someone who knows you so well. How did you approach this encounter?

PH: We played in Gibraltar this year as well. It is not easy to play against a person with whom you are preparing. Somehow we manage to play some openings which we haven’t looked at together.

[Editor’s note: The same question was asked to Surya Shekhar Ganguly and this is what he had to say about facing his training partner, “It’s always very difficult to play with someone whom you train with, and it gets even more difficult if that player has a humble rating of 2740! It’s hard to find lines which we haven't seen together. But then we also work with other players too. So there is always some way out.”]

Ganguly and Harikrishna in good spirits before the start of their game

SS: From 2004 to 2013 you were in the 2600s. And in the past two years you were not only able to break into 2700 but also steadily increase your rating. As on today you are 2740 and 19th in the world rankings! What really changed in the last two years? Some secret improvement technique that you would like to share with the readers?!

PH: 2005 was an excellent year for me and around April, 2006 I was 2682. At that time I was World number 25! From 2007 until 2010 I used to have solid results with few rating points here and there. From 2010 onwards, my motivation came back in chess and I started enjoying playing and working on the game more than before. 2011 Asian Championships was a big break for me. After that, I received an invitation to play in Wijk Aan Zee in the B group in 2012, which I won and qualified to play in the A group in 2013. Playing in Wijk A helped me a lot.

I feel nothing changes or improves at once. It is no secret that I worked on chess earlier as well. Sometimes results may not show up as quickly as one expects, but the work won’t be wasted if it is done in a proper way. Surya and I started working around 2011-2012 and his contribution to my opening repertoire has played a major role in my improvement. There are couple of others who have helped me with their ideas, whom I wish not to name.

I joined Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) in June2010. BPCL played an important role in supporting my chess activities.

17/17! That was Harikrishna’s score at the simul held on 19th of June

SS: What are your next tournaments and future plans?

PH: I will play Greek, Turkish and Spanish league, World cup (if I qualify by rating) Isle of Man, and Qatar Masters.

Ganguly and Harikrishna trying the crabs in New Jersey, where they spent a few days
prior to the Edmonton International with their friend GM Magesh Chandran

SS: And lastly, before I let you go, please tell us: How were the crabs?! ?

PH: I was happy to crack a crab properly for the first time!

SS: Thanks a lot, Hari, for your time and efforts. Really appreciate it.

Participants of the 10th Edmonton International: WIM Agnieszka Matras-Clement, Pentala Harikrishna, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Wang Hao, Dale Haessel, Samuel Shankland, Aman Hambleton, Robert Gardner and Vassily Ivanchuk

Pictures from the Facebook page of Alberta Chess Association

Links Official website All games in PGN You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.