Reykjavik: India's Grand Master Harika Dronavalli recovered strongly from her loss in Round 5 to score an emphatic victory over Vignir Vatnar Stefansson in the highly competitive Reykjavik Open chess tournament here.

The Guntur lass, playing white, was back to her best in Round 6 as she played French defence and exploited the inexperienced opponent by slowly increasing pressure on him till he resigned. She meticulously closed the game in just 38 moves here on Sunday night.

Playing with French defence, Harika dominated over her opponent through the game.

"I opted for early queen exchanges and due to inexperience my opponent made mistakes in his piece placements and I immediately exploited it by slowly increasing pressure and advantage until he resigned," the Hyderabadi said.

With four more rounds to go, Harika is currently at the 28th position on the table but more interestingly just half a point behind the current leader GM Can Emre of Turkey, with four wins, one draw and one loss.

The 10-round tournament will see her take on Mongolian IM Tuvshintugs Batchimeg in Round 7 who has four and a half points, just like Harika.