PTI 
 
Cap D'Agde (France), Oct 30: Former World Junior champion P Harikrishna regained the joint lead in the Cap D' Agde International rapid chess tournament after an emphatic victory over Marie Sebag of France in the fifth round here.

Harikrishna showed signs of resurrections after a shock defeat at the hands of former Women's World champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the fourth round.

The Indian took his tally to 3.5 points out of a possible five in this section and is now at par with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine in Group A. Third place is jointly held by Laurent Fressinet of France, Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Stefanova, all of whom have 3 points apiece while India's Parimarjan Negi is sixth on 2 points.

In Group B, Humpy's chances of making it to the top four, who qualify for the knockout stage, increased after she held Norwegian Magnus Carlsen to a creditable draw.

With 2.5 points in her bag and two games to come, Humpy has her task cut out in this section which is led by Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine on 4.5 points.

Despite beating one of the hot favourites, Etienne Bacrot of France in the fourth round, the fortunes of former World Champion Anatoly Karpov did not change much as Volokitin grinded him in a fine game in the fifth round.

The event being played under two groups now has a cricket-like format wherein after the round robin, the top four from both groups will qualify for the knockout stage.

The stakes are pretty decent with the losers in prelims assured 1000 Euros each, 2000 Euros for the quarterfinalists losers, 4000 Euros for the semifinalists, 8000 for the runner-up and 16000 Euros (approx Rs 9 lac) for the winner.