Steely Harika joins Humpy in quarterfinals

HATAY (TURKEY): Grandmaster norm holder D Harika showed steely nerves to beat Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and storm into the quarterfinals of the World Women's Chess Championship.Apart from Harika, Koneru Humpy is already in the quarterfinals after defeating Anna Zatonskih of United States in classical games.Harika was stretched in to the tiebreaker and it was a hardday's effort - and aided by lady luck - that saw her through with fortunesfluctuating a lot.The biggest upset of the Championship was causedby Ruan Lufei of China who knocked out defending champion Alexandra Kosteniuk ina tiebreaker. Ruan was in top form in the first rapid game that she won withblack and in the return game the Chinese drew to show Alexandra the exitdoor.Another Chinese super talent Yifan Hao cruised to the nextstage defeating former Chinese, Zhu Chen of Qatar in the rapid games. Yifan drewthe first game as black and romped home with some original play in thesecond.Harika's match against Mariya was by far the most interestingand keenly contested in the pre-quarterfinals. The Indian had drawn bothClassical games to set up the tiebreaker and it was a cliffhanger on allcounts.The Indian started with a victory in the first rapid gamethat saw her in top form against the Czech Benoni with white pieces. Using herBishop to desired effect, Harika wove a fine checkmate web to crushMariya.It was in the second rapid game that Mariya struck back.Playing white, the Ukrainian won a pawn and displayed her technical acumen toregister the much needed victory in 56 moves.The stage was thus setfor the blitz games in which Mariya won the first game with black and it seemedshe was home already. However, Harika proved her true mettle winning the returngame with black pieces to let the match go in to the final Armageddon game inwhich white got five minutes to black's four but in the event of a draw blackwill qualify.Harika got black pieces and needed a draw but Mariyawas on a mission and she put pressure with her Italian opening. In the endgamethat arose, Harika was almost out of hope as Mariya won a pawn to get a completewinning position.Forcing the trade of queens Mariya almost ensuredthe qualification but for the clock that was ticking away through out thegame.Although starting a minute less, Harika had shown perfect paceand Mariya, in the final stages of the game with a winning position on board,lost on time. The lady luck had favoured the Indian.In the other tiebreaker, Almira Skripchenko of France defeated Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania after the match was prolonged till the blitz game. Almira, a renowned expert in blitz format, had little difficulty in tackling Viktorija.