Indian Grand Master Harika Dronavalli continued her winning form as she beat Grand Master Rauf Mamedov from Azerbaijan in the second round and registered her second win of the Master’s Tournament in the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, late here on Tuesday night.
The World number nine Indian, playing with white pieces, started off on an aggressive note which led the third seeded Azerbaijani to commit mistakes early into the game. She did not take the foot off the pedal as the game progressed and found the winning move after a long and grueling 56 move game.
“I did not try anything new. I just played a setup which I had practiced long ago, through which my opponent made two mistakes in the initial stages of the game which gave me the edge and I kept pressure throughout the game and slowly my opponent’s position collapsed,” Harika said after her second straight win.
The lass from Guntur is paired up against Grand Master Stupak Kirill from Belarus for her third-round clash. She will look to keep the momentum going, but will be wary off her opponent as she will be playing him for the very first time tomorrow.
“It is satisfying that I beat the third seed of the tournament but I still have seven more games to go and will focus on that,” the World number nine Indian concluded on an optimistic note.