Moscow: WGM D. Harika came up with a sparkling performance to hold GM Jaan Ehlvest of the US in Round 7 of the A1 section of Aeroflot International Chess Festival here.

On what turned out to be a bad day in office for Indians in the premier group, Harika was the lone saving grace as she remained on course for her maiden GM norm.

She needs just one point out of the remaining two games to get a GM norm — a feat achieved by two Indian women so far — Koneru Humpy and S. Vijayalakshmi.

Second seed Krishnan Sasikiran’s struggle with form continued and he squandered a better position against Igor Kurnosov . P. Harikrishna mishandled a decent position to go down to Dmitry Svetushkin. Ilia Smirin proved superior to national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly. (PTI)