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Harikrishna beats Korchnoi to emerge sole leader

Paks (Hungary), Aug. 13 (PTI): P Harikrishna toppled tournament leader Viktor Korchnoi of Switzerland to take the sole lead after the seventh round of the Marx Gyorgy Memorial International chess tournament here.

The defending champion, who started off with a loss and three draws in the category-14 tournament, scored his third victory on the trot and has now emerged as the favourite for his second successive title with 4.5 points.

Korchnoi and Csaba Balogh of Hungary share the second spot on 4 points each. Peter Acs of Hungary is fourth in the standings on 3.5 points, a half point ahead of compatriot Ferenc Berkes while Chinese Hou Yifan remains at the bottom of the tables on 2 points. Besides Harikrishna, Balogh was the other winner of the day, defeating Yifan.

The former world junior champion's victory against Korchnoi came easy. At 77, the legendry Swiss GM is clearly past his prime but the agility with which he carries out his moves on board is still a spectator's delight.

Playing white, Harikrishna faced the Queen's Gambit accepted and got a slight advantage typical of the opening. Korchnoi, however, had his pieces controlling key squares but a rook lift from the queen side did the trick for Harikrishna.

Just while the attack was builidng, Korchnoi crumbled and found himself in an Opposite colour Bishops endgame with a pawn less. Harikrishna converted the material advantage into a full point after 43 moves.

"Its nice to be on the winning side again, I think he misjudged the potential in my position, it was a new position for me but after I found this king side attack plan I thought I was already better," Harikrishna said.

Sport

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