Harika Dronavalli qualified for the third round after eliminating Irina Krush in the rapid games. After the match Harika visited the media room to explain how did she set her mind to win.
Anastasia Karlovich: Welcome to the Press Center of the Women’s World Chess Championship. Our new guest is Harika Dronavalli from India. She has just outplayed Irina Krush of the USA and went on to the next round. Harika, tie breaks seemed to be very tough today.
Harika Dronavalli: Thank you so much for your congratulations. Actually during our classical games, I was always better. Somehow in the end I messed up something and gave her a chance to get a point. It was actually very difficult to start today’s rapid game, for I needed to forget my classical one. I needed to forget all my mistakes I have done. So, it was really tough.
I made up my mind that today somehow I am going to win. I came with this idea. And I hoped that it would be ended by rapid generally. I don’t know why I was sure like that.
– Tell us about your first game in rapid. It was clear that you have an advantage, this pawn on d2. It looked not so easy from the other side. You looked so busy when trying to find a winning plan.
– After the opening, I think both of us started playing on the board. It looked like both of us did not have any idea what to do, and no preparation plan in the pocket. We both slowly started to think. And to my mind the position became easier for me to play further. I continued pressing and pressing and in the end I managed to finally win. In the second game, I messed up all again. In the position where only white can try. I just played very safe and managed to get worse position. But in the end with some tactics I managed to save the game.
– When you win the first game, what do you do in the second: you just play or you care about the result, to make a draw and finish it?
– No, it’s not good to think about draw. It’s important to play your game. But the problem is that I already messed up in the classical games. So, I was little worried that I should not do something like this in my second game specially when playing white.
– Who is your next opponent? Whom are you going to play?
– I am playing Kosteniuk.
– It’s going to be an interesting match. What about your score against Alexandra?
– What is passed – passed. I don’t remember really. Right now my mind is not working to think about it. Tomorrow another round is going to start and I am going to be fresh for it to play well.
– Have a good rest, Harika. Thank you so much for coming.