Paks (Hungary): P. Harikrishna celebrated his Arjuna Award in great style, beating Chinese women GM Hou Yifan in the fifth round to rise to the joint third spot in the Marx Gyorgy Memorial International Chess tournament here.

The defending champion cruised past Yifan to register his first victory in the category-14 double round robin tournament. The Indian proved his mettle against Yifan who played the white side of a Ruy Lopez.

Yifan fell in to troubles in the middle game when Harikrishna got a much better knight against the bishop.