Harikrishna beats top seed Lazaro

The other Indian in the fray D Harika also got off to a good start holding last year’s ‘C’ group winner Daniele Vocaturo of Italy to share the fifth spot after the opening round.

B Adhiban was the other Indian who got off to a flier in the ‘C’ group beating Anne Haast of Holland. Adhiban won with black while the all Indian affair between Tania Sachdev and Sahaj Grover petered out to a draw without much excitement. Sans Viawanathan Anand,the premier group saw Nepali-Russian Anish Giri in top form as he methodically outwitted Boris Gelfand of Israel.

Fresh from his victory at the Reggio Emilia tournament in Italy,Giri did not show any signs of fatigue in this near one sided affair and now shares the lead with world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway and Levon Aronian of Armenia.

Harikrishna could not have hoped for a better start than a victory against the top seed. Playing true to his style,the Andhra based went for the Berlin defense as black and found Lazaro’s technique wanting in the endgame that ensued.

From a slightly worse position,Harikrishna equalized in quick time and then his perseverance on the queen side paid heavy dividends as Lazaro lost a pawn before reaching a pure minor piece endgame. The technicalities were still there but Harikrishna made them all look like childs play and won in 79 moves.