Harikrishna suffers first loss of campaign, tied 3rd in Geneva FIDE Grand Prix

Geneva, July 15: Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna suffered his first loss in the ongoing FIDE Grand Prix after he went down to Li Chao of China in the eighth-round encounter here.

The World No.22 Indian, playing with black pieces, got into better positions from the initial moments 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 conceded 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-yeard-old from Guntur will now take on Dimitry Jakovenko of Russia in his last game of the Geneva FIDE Grand Prix.

"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.