Harikrishna in sole lead

Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna jumped in to sole lead in the 15th Ciudad de Pamplona International Chess tournament with a crushing victory over GM Laurent Fresinet of France in the fourth round in Spain on Tuesday.

With his second victory in the tournament, Harikrishna took his tally to 3 points out of a possible 4 and is now half a point adrift of nearest rivals former world Champion Rulan Ponomariov of Ukraine and Ivan Cheparinov of Bulgaria who both have 2.5 points each in their bag.

Another half point behind are Izria Zviad of Georgia, sergei Tiviakov of Holland and Fressinet while Dutchman Jan Timman and Andorran Oscar De La Riva Aguado have 1 point each.

With three rounds still to come in this Category -16 round robin event among 8 players, third seed Harikrishna has excellent chance of making another title triumph. In the next round the Indian will meet Zviad while in the last two rounds he will play against Tiviakov and Ponomariov, second and top seeds respectively.

The new found love of Harikrishna in the King Pawn game is giving excellent results off late and the fourth round was not a different story. Playing the Ruy Lopez, Harikrishna faced the in-vogue Tchigorin variation and a small opening surprise left Fressinet shattered in the ensuing middle game.

Harikrishna's plan was simple and clear once he established his superiority in space control. The King side attack followed soon after and Fressinet fumbled to allow a devastating exchange sacrifice on the 37th move. Hari was quick to pounce on the opportunity.