Surya Sekhar

Moscow: Teenage prodigies Dronavalli Harika and G. Rohit all but confirmed their individual GM norms with yet another commendable performance in the eighth and penultimate round of the Aerolfot International Chess Tournament here on Thursday.

Woman Grandmaster Harika, looking for her maiden GM norm, held Andrei Volokitin in the A1 section while Rohit also inched closer to what would be his second GM norm, defeating Tigran Nalbandian of Armenia in the A2 section being held simultaneously.

Both Harika and Rohit need just draws in their final round games to achieve the feat.

It turned out to be a much better day for the Indians as Krishnan Sasikiran and national champion Surya Sekhar Ganguly scored contrasting victories in the A1 section.

Drawing his fifth game in eight rounds was former world junior champion P. Harikrishna while S. Vijayalakshmi was comprehensively beaten by world’s youngest Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi, who incidentally scored his first victory in the event.

But draw was the order of the day despite some very interesting games.

Russian trio of Evgeny Tomashevsky, Evgeny Alekseev and Dmitry Jakovenko remained in joint lead on six points.

Harika, Sasikiran and Ganguly have four points apiece. Ganguly played white against Safarli Eltaj of Azerbaijan and faced the Sicilian Najdorf. The Indian got a subtle advantage out of the opening and nurtured it quite well till the end of the game.

After an excellent start that fetched him two victories in the first two rounds itself, this was Ganguly’s third victory in the tournament. (PTI)