Harika remains on top in Chinese chess meet

Chengdu (China), July 13 (IANS) Indian Grand Master Harika Dronavalli is just a step away from winning her first Fide women’s Grand Prix chess title as she retained her top spot here on Wednesday.

Harika played an aggressive game to earn another crucial half a point to stay on top. This is the tenth and penultimate round of the tournament and she just needs a draw and a couple of other games to go her way to claim the title.

She is sitting pretty on 6.5 points, with Koneru Humpy (India) and Stefanova Antoeneta (Bulgaria) half a point behind on joint second with 6 points each.

Incidentally, they face off against each other in the final round, that makes Harika’s job easier.

“We played the semi-Slav opening and I equalised in the opening itself. But I made a wrong move in the middle game and got into a bit of a tangle. I had to engineer a series of forced moves to pull off a draw," an excited Harika said.

Harika locks wits with Olga Girya of Russia in her final game on Thursday.