Harikrishna to meet Yifan in Shamkir Chess

Indian Grandmaster P Harikrishna will take on women's world champion Yifan Hou of China in the sixth round of Shamkir Chess tournament here tomorrow.
After a rest day following some really high-tension games, Harikrishna can feel at ease in the last four rounds as the storm has apparently passed since the Indian has played all top players.
Harikrishna on 2.5 points is currently sharing the fourth spot in the 10-player round-robin tournament with a prize fund of 83000 Euros. The Indian had a fantastic start with a draw against world number two Fabiano Caruana of United States and a victory in the second round over local favourite Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

However, Harikrishna slipped a bit and lost to Sergey Karjakin of Russia and Anish Giri of Holland in the next two rounds and could stage a recovery only in the fifth round when he won a beautiful game against Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine.
After the battle with Yifan, Harikrishna plays Azerbaijanis ELtaj Safarli, Teimour Radjabov and Rauf Mamedov in the last three rounds and would be hoping for a positive result.
Caruana, after the draw with Harikrishna, has been on a rampage winning the next four games and is currently leading the tables by a half point over Giri who has four points with three wins and two draws. World championship challenger Karjakin is on third spot with three points while

Harikrishna shares the fourth spot with Mamedyarov. Mamedov, Radjabov and Safarli all have two points apiece sharing the sixth spot while Yifan on 1.5 is ninth currently, a half point clear of Eljanov.

It looks like a massive gap between the leader Caruana and Harikrishna currently but the leader has tough games lined up in the last three rounds when he is scheduled to meet Giri, Mamedyarov and finally Karjakin.
Besides Caruana, Giri too has another tough game lined up against Mamedyarov and these pairings indicate that the gap between the leaders and Harikrishna might bridge over the next few days. That said, the Indian will have to score heavily.

Pairings Round 6: Yifan Hou (Chn, 1.5) vs P Harikrishna (Ind, 2.5); Anish Giri (Ned, 4) vs Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 1); Safarli Eltaj (Aze, 2) vs Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 4.5); Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 2) vs Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 2.5); Rauf Mamedov (Aze, 2) vs Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 3).