Reggio Emilia (Italy): A jetlagged P Harikrishna went down to top seed Zoltan Almasi of Hungary in the first round of the 50th Reggio Emilia chess tournament here.

Evidently tired after arriving from an event in Mexico where he finished second to Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Harikrishna could not find his rhythm on the first day of this category-16 traditional tournament that has 10-players from different countries playing in a round-robin format.

Apart from Almasi, Romanian Mihail Marin was the other winner on the opening day, scoring an upset victory over Sergei Tiviakov of Holland.

The remaining three games were drawn, albeit after tough fights.

Aided by his clean effort against Harikrishna, Almasi became an early leader alongwith Marin, who is known for his analytical work in top level chess these days.

Ni Hua of China played out a draw with David Navara of Czech Republic, Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland held Konstantin Landa of Russia while local hopeful Michele Godena signed peace with Vugar Gashimov of Azerbaijan.

It turned out to be a tough outing for Harikrishna against Almasi as the Indian was pushed to the defence early in the opening.

Harikrishna missed a difficult chance to equalise in the early middle game and his pieces slowly turned passive while Almasi rolled on.

In the middle game, a timely onslaught helped the Hungarian to tighten the noose on the queen side and it was soon all over for Harikrishna.

Source : PTI