Hari, Murali in lead after two rounds

Muralidharan won an exchange on move 19 and then found a good Queen and rook combination to deliver mate. Harikrishna pounced on Haridas’ passive play and got better as the game progressed. Haridas blundered a rook in the end.

IM R B Ramesh of PSCB and former Kerala champion N A Majeed were in the second position with 1.5 points each. Ramesh beat Nazia Nona of Tal Academy in 26 moves of Sicilian Defence after snatching a pawn in the opening phase while Majeed outwitted Ratnakaran in 45 moves of Reti Opening.

IM K Murugan of NLC recovered from his first round loss anddefeated K R Madhusoodanan of Tal Academy in 49 moves of Queens Gambit Declined.

Results (2nd round): K Haridas (0.5) lost to Harikrishna (2); M B Muralidharan (2) bt Mitrakanth (NLC) 1; N A Majeed (1.5) bt Ratnakaran (0); Nazia Nona (0.5) lost to R B Ramesh (1.5); KR Madhusoodanan (0) lost to Murugan (1).