Reigning Asian champion Grandmaster P Harikrishna will spearhead the Indian challenge in the World Chess Cup that gets underway in Russia. Harikrishna will face Maxim Rodshtein of Israel . Harikrishna starts as a favorite in the event starting on Saturday. World junior champion in 2008, Abhijeet Gupta has a higher-ranked opponent in Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan.The other Indian in the fray – Parimarjan Negi – meets Vladimir Akopian of Armenia and is likely to get a walkover due to a leg injury that the latter suffered some days back.