Hatay (Turkey), Dec. 13: Grandmaster norm holder D. Harika showed steely nerves to beat Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine and join statemate Koneru Humpy in the quarterfinals of the World Women’s Chess Championship here.
Harika was stretched into the tiebreaker and managed to pull it off amidst fluctuating fortunes. She had drawn both Classical games to set up a cliffhanging tie-breaker. Harika started with a victory in the first rapid game but Mariya struck back in the second. The stage was thus set for the blitz games in which Mariya won the first but Harika pulled level to take the match into the Armageddon game in which white got five minutes to black’s four but in the event of a draw black would qualify. Starting a minute less, Harika kept pace and Mariya, with a winning position on board, lost on time.