With his third victory in as many rounds, Harikrishna maintained pole position and remained half a point clear of Erwin L'Ami of Holland.

What turned out to be a day of missed chances for the Indians in Group C, double GM norm holder Sahaj Grover wasted a slightly better position to eke out a draw with Grandmaster Daan Brandenburg.

Another Dutchman Pieter Hopman survived many anxious moments before stealing half a point from International Master Tania Sachdev, while Grandmaster B Adhiban also let GM Hans Tikkanen of Sweden off the hook.

In the premier Group A, world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway rose to the occasion to outplay Levon Aronian of Armenia. The victory also helped Calrsen snatch the lead from Aronian who had got off to a flier with two successive wins.

Meanwhile, in Group B, it continued to be Hari's show and now with ten rounds to go, the Indian enjoys a nice cushion of lead.

Harika slipped way behind in the section as she remained on one point.

In Group C, Maxim Turov of Russia won his third straight game to remain in sole lead.

Following him is the dark horse Etienne Goudriaan of Holland, while Grover and Adhiban share the third spot on two points each. Tania Sachdev, with her three draws, is on 1.5 points.

Harikrishna displayed top form and excellent technique yet again to get the better of Harika. It was an English opening by the later wherein Harikrishna equalised comfortably before making a decisive headway on the queen side.

Once the endgame arrived, Harika knew she was in trouble and after losing a pawn it was all over for the Andhra girl.

Adhiban spent a lot of time in the Grand Prix attack as white against Tikkanen and in the end both players fell in acute time pressure. As it happened, Adhiban stood better in the middle game but exchanges at regular intervals led the game to a drawn rook and pawns endgame.

Sahaj Grover created chances for himself in the French defense game against Brandenburg but missed the thread to land in a hopeless position. It was only after a blunder by the Dutchman that Grover was able to salvage the half point.

Results of Round 3:

Group B: Lazaro Bruzon (Cub, 1) drew with Alexander Motylev (Rus, 1.5); Kateryna Lahno (Ukr, 1.5) drew with Dmitry Reinderman (Ned, 1.5); D Harika (Ind, 1) lost to P Harikrishna (Ind, 3); Viktorija Cmilyte (Ltu, 1) beat Sipke Ernst (Ned, 0.5); Erwin L'Ami (Ned, 2.5) beat Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 1.5); Jan Timman (Ned, 2) beat Illya Nyzhnik (Ukr, 1.5); Vladimir Potkin (Rus, 1) lost to Sergei Tiviakov (Ned, 2).