Former world junior champion P Harikrishna expectedly settled for a quick draw with former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine in the eighth and final round game to finish tied second in the 15th Ciudad De Pamplona International Chess tournament in Pamplona, Spain.
Harikrishna, who ended the event with 4.5 points, tied with Grandmaster Ivan Cheparinov who defeated GM Izoria Zviad of Georgia in the lone decisive game in the final round.
However, Harikrishna's better tie-break record ensured that the Indian finished second.
While Ponomariov, having done the hard work in the first seven rounds, was content with the draw in his last game, which was enough for him to still emerge clear first with five points out of a possible 8.
The fourth place went to Sergei Tiviakov of Holland who scored 4 points. In the last round, Tiviakov drew with Laurent Fressinet of France, who finished fifth.
Zviad followed on sixth with 3 points after losing the last round and Dutchman Jan Timman was seventh on 2 points, just half a point ahead of the bottom placed Oscar De La Riva Aguado of Andorra.
Harikrishna had little to worry about in the last round game despite playing black against the strongest player of the event.
The fact that Ponomariov had white and needed just a draw, left little to imagination. Playing the Caro Kann defense, Harikrishna faced the classical system and the game had barely come out of established theoretical manoeuvres when the players decided to sign peace after 15 moves.
"Overall the event well for me, there were two games, against Timman in round one and the penultimate round game against Tiviakov where I was better but could not convert," Harikrishna said.
"I am gaining around seven Elo rating points from here which is good as this was quite a strong field," he added.
Cheparinov caught up with Harikrishna after an inspired performance in the last round game against Zviad. The Bulgarian opted for Semi Slav defense and faced the ultra-sharp Botvinnik variation.
However, as the events unfolded, Zviad's preparation in this opening was not adequate enough and he allowed Cheparinov easy play on both flanks. Cheparinov later easily digested an exchange sacrifice by his opponent and won after 37 moves.
Timman drew with Aguado without much ado in his final round game. It was another Slav defense game of the day in which Timman playing white stood slightly better but perhaps the pounding in the earlier games of the tournament left him in little mood to fight for an advantage. The peace was signed in 23 moves.
The game between Fressinet and Tiviakov lasted just 15 moves with the former playing with black. Tiviakov, who will next play in the 'A' group of Corus chess tournament against an elite field just played it safe.
Results final round: Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 5) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind, 4.5); Izoria Zviad (Geo, 3) lost to Ivan Cheparinov (Bul, 4.5); Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 4) drew with Laurent Fressinet (Fra, 3.5); Jan Timman (Ned, 2) drew with Oscar De La Riva Aguado (1.5).
The moves: (Ruslan Ponomariov v/s P Harikrishna)
1. e4 c6 2. d4 d5 3. Nc3 dxe4 4. Nxe4 Bf5 5. Ng3 Bg6 6. h4 h6 7. Nf3 Nd7 8. h5 Bh7 9. Bd3 Bxd3 10. Qxd3 Ngf6 11. Bf4 e6 12. O-O-O Be7 13. Kb1 O-O 14. Ne5 Nxe5 15. Bxe5 Ng4 draw agreed
