By IANS
Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands) : Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna moved into joint lead after the second round as he beat Chinese Grandmaster Hou Yifan in a very interesting display at the Corus International Chess tournament here late Sunday. Harikrishna is now a joint leader in Group B with 1.5 points from two games.
Hari had drawn with his former trainer Nigel Short in the opening round.
Hari shares the lead with Dutchmen Jan Smeets and Daniel Stellwagen, Short, Bulgarian Ivan Cheparinov, better known as Topalov’s second, and French Etienne Bacrot.
Playing with white pieces, Hari opened with the King’s Indian attack. In the sharp middle game, he took command and dealt with Yifan’s counter-play perfectly. Yifan was soon in trouble and pushed to the wall and ended up losing two minor pieces for a rook. Hari then completed the win in 54 moves.
In another Group B match, Koneru Humpy played out a hard fought draw with Ian Nepomniachtchi.
In other Group B matches Short played a fine game to beat Erwin L’Ami and Michael Krasenkow came back into reckoning after cruising past Wouter Spoelman.
In Group A World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. Magnus Carlsen beat Pavel Eljanov for his second win, while Lev outplayed Boris Gelfand. Aronian and Carlsen lead this event with a perfect two out of two score.
In Group C, Parimarjan Negi lost his second successive game to Arik Braun.