PANAJI: Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi will take on an in-form Levon Aronian of Armenia, while P Harikrishna will have to tackle giant-killer Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantara of Mexico in the pre-quarterfinals of the World Cup here.

Drubbing Peter Leko of Hungary 2-0 in the first set of the tie-break games, Arjun has to meet Aronian, who has displayed great form coming into the round of 16 and it looks like an evenly-poised match on form even though Arjun enjoys a decent rating advantage.

For Harikrishna the biggest challenge so far awaits in form of Jose Martinez who has played impeccably thus far packing off higher ranked players in tandem. Harikrishna conceded that he had never played the Mexican in a Classical game.

"I think probably in some blitz games sometime but I don't think I hav

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