World junior champion P Harikrishna outwitted top seed Grandmaster Ivan Sokolov of the Netherlands in the third round of the Crown group of Essent international chess tournament here.With his second successive victory, Harikrishna took his tally to 2.5 points out of a possible 3 and is now a full point ahead of nearest rivals Sokolov and Emil Sutovsky of Israel.Sutovsky defeated women’s world champion Antoaneta Stefanova in the other game of the four-player double round robin event.As things stand now, 1.5 points should be enough from the remaining three games for Harikrishna to notch another major victory of the year. He recently won the Sanjin Hotel Cup in China.It turned out to be a disappointing day for Sokolov who did everything right for the major part of the game but failed to capitalise on his chances.Starting off with the Italian game, Harikrishna came up with an early surprise and the Dutchman got a tenable position out of the opening with precise equalising manoeuvres.Harikrishna was the first to err in the middle game when he landed in some difficulty on the queen side but managed to pull himself out of trouble with a fine pawn sacrifice leading to a level endgame.“It was a fortunate victory alright but I was not as much worse as many might have believed,” Harikrishna said after the game.
