Isle of Man (Douglas), October 6:
Harika Dronavalli notched up a second straight victory in the fifth round of the Isle of Man International Chess tournament here late on Wednesday night to move up to joint eleventh position.
The Indian Grand Master (ELO 2542), who was joint 26th at the start of the match, beat Scotland’s GM Ketevan Arakhamia-Grant (2376) to accumulate 3.5 points. She has so far won three games, drawn one and lost one to show that her graph continues to be on the rise.
The World No. 6 sounded particularly happy after this win. “It wasn’t an easy game. But I keep mounting the pressure on my opponent and it helped,” Harika said. “I slowed gained the initiative and at the right time went for the kill,” she added.
Harika next faces Armenia’s Gabriel Sargissian (2670). Gabriel comes into the battle with 3.5 points himself, having drawn with Georgia’s Nino Batsiashvili in his last game.