Harikrishna bags second GM norm

Indian chess prodigy P Harikrishna achieved his second Grandmaster's norm following a quick draw against International Master Teimour Rajdabov of Azerbaijan in the ninth round of the Grandmasters Group `B' Corus chess tournament in Wijk Ann Zee on Friday.

The 14-year-old Harikrishna got his first norm at the Istanbul Chess Olympiad last year.

With almost all the important age-group national titles under his belt, the Wipro-sponsored Harikrishna has now trained his sights on the coveted Grandmaster's title.

He became the first Indian after Anand to win a World Championship title, when he won the World under-10 championship in 1996.

Under the guidance of IM Vargese Koshy, Harikrishna made forays into the Indian team last year with a creditable performance in the National `A' championships, which gave him an opportunity to rub shoulders with the likes of GM Valery Salov and GM Evgeny Vladimirov during various coaching programmes organised by the All India Chess Federation.

Harikrishna has six points in the tournament and is only a half point behind tournament leader GM Mikhail Gurevich of Belgium.

Important results: P Harikrishna 6 drew T Radjabov 6; T Luther 6 drew De Vreugt 4.5; Nijboer Friso 5.5 beat M Bosboom 4.5; Boris Gulko 5 drew M Gurevich 6.5; Nico Vink 1.5 drew Yge Visser 3; E Hoeksema 1 lost to V Karel 5.