Barua, Harikrishna out of World Chess Championships

India's best hope in the women's competition, Woman Grandmaster Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi, also bowed out of the Championship with a draw against her Polish counterpart Joanna Dworakowska.

Vijayalakshmi lost the two-game match 0.5-1.5.

Barua was quite unlucky not to have settled the scores and in the end lost 0-2 the two-game match.

Playing white, Barua knew his chances lay amidst complexities and took the first offered opportunity to launch an attack against the king.

Lautier fell under pressure and had to suffer for long as Barua's Knight invaded the sixth rank and threatened to create havoc.

The game took a decisive turn in Barua's favour as Lautier made an error that left his pieces stranded on the kingside.

However, Barua failed to capitalise on his superior position and Lautier came back into the game with some fine defensive moves.

With his clock ticking away, disaster struck Barua on the 36th move as he blundered a full piece and resigned immediately.

"I was much better off. There is hardly an explanation for the blunder," said an aghast-looking Barua adding that even the final position was better for him.

Harikrishna, India's youngest GM, started with the Slav defence from the black pieces and traded a minor piece early on in the middle game to net a balanced position.

While trying to muster up some advantage Belyavski took his chances on the Queenside but that also did not prove sufficient as Harikrishna was well armed.

After the Queen rook file was opened, both the rooks got exchanged and it was a queen and minor piece endgame where Harikrishna went wrong with his plan and lost tamely in 38 moves.

In the first game on Tuesday, Harikrishna had held Belyavski to a draw with the white pieces.