Harikrishna sniffs title in Hungary

Paks, Hungary, Aug 6 (UNI) Grandmaster P Harikrishna inched close towards the title with a clinical decimation of defending champion Zoltan Almasi in the eighth round of the third Gyorgy Marx Memorial Chess Meet here.

With this win, his second of the tournament, the Indian grandmaster swelled his tally to 5.5 -- thus extending his lead to 1.5 points over the trio of Almasi, Zahar Efimenko and Wang Yue -- and looks all set to win the tournament which has two more rounds to go. Harikrishna's first win came against Peter Acs of Hungary in the first Round and he drew six games in between before this win.

Playing with black against local favourite, Harikrishna was aggressive right from the beginning in the game that continued on Ruy Lopez lines.

Harikrishna posed serious threats for the white king and eventually wound up the game in just 42 moves.

The Wang Yue-Peter Acs and Zahar Efimenko-Ferenc Berkes encounters failed to yield any result.

In the penultimate round, Harikrishna meets Wang Yue of China.

Standings after round eight: 1. P Harikrishna (5.5) 2. Zahar Efimenko, Wang Yue, Zahar Almasi (4) 5. Ferenc Berkes (3.5) 6. Peter Acs (2.5).

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