Harika stretched to another tiebreaker

Grandmaster D Harika missed out on a very difficult yet golden opportunity to advance to the semi-finals after going down to Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia in the second game of the two-games mini-match in the World Women's chess championship here.

Having won the first game of the match, Harika needed just a draw to make it to last-four stage but the Indian fell under pressure right from the start in the second game and did not quite recover.

For Dzagnidze, it has turned out to be a good opportunity now as both players start the tiebreak games of shorter duration with scores tied.

Out of the four quarter-finals, only Harika's match stretched to the tiebreak stage and the Indian will play a couple of 25 minutes games with a 30 seconds increment against Dzagnidze. If the scores are still tied two games with 10 minutes apiece will be played and if the tie persists, two blitz games will follow a final Armageddon game to determine the winner.

Contrary to expectations, Dzagnidze chose a very solid opening as white and gave nothing away while waiting for her chances. Harika fell a bit under time pressure and had to part with a pawn in the middle game and that was exactly when a very difficult-to-spot chance came her way.