Reykjavik: A quick draw in the ninth and final round with GM Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia saw Grandmaster and former world junior champion P. Harikrishna finishing on top jointly with four other players. However, he lost out the title to his Armenian rival in the 22nd Reykjavik International Open chess tournament.

After a rather shaky start in the tournament, this turned out to be a good finish by Harikrishna whose Elo rating will move up. It was a five-way tie at the top with Sargissian winning the title thanks to his excellent tie-break score under the Bucholz System.

The other top-place finishers, apart from Harikrishna, were Adly Ahmed of Egypt, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, Igor-Alexander Nataf of France.

Harikrishna’s biggest victory came in the penultimate round when he defeated Israel’s Sergey Erenburg.

Sargissian led from the beginning of the event and was a worthy winner. The Armenian was temporarily under the threat of finishing second when Magnus Carlsen was seen pressing for a victory against Ahmed in a better position in the final round. But a subsequent blunder by the Norwegian sealed the tournament’s fate in favour of Sargissian.

Another Indian, P. Magesh Chandran, finished on 5 points after losing the final-round game against experienced GM Jaan Ehlvest of Estonia.