Harika moves up to joint 11th at international chess meet

Harika Dronavalli notched up a second straight victory in the fifth round of the Isle of Man International Chess tournament here to move up to the joint 11th position.

The Indian Grand Master, who was joint 26th at the start of the match late on Wednesday night, beat Scotland's GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2376) to accumulate 3.5 points. She has so far won three games, drawn one and lost one to show that her graph continues to be on the rise.

The World No.6 sounded particularly happy after this win.

"It wasn't an easy game. But I keep mounting the pressure on my opponent and it helped," Harika said.

"I slowly gained the initiative and at the right time went for the kill," she added.

Harika will next face Armenia's Gabriel Sargissian. Gabriel comes into the battle with 3.5 points himself, having drawn with Georgia's Nino Batsiashvili in his last game.

--IANS

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