He began 2005 by tying for first in the Bermuda International (2005) (a Category 17 event). Later, he followed that up by winning a series of strong Cat 15 and 16 events - 2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup (2005), Crown Group of 9th Essent Hoogeveen (2005), XXII Reykjavik Open (2006), 4th Marx Gyorgy Memorial (2006). In August 2006, "Hari" beat Naiditsch in Mainz to become Chess960 World Junior Champion. He recaptured the 5th Gyorgy Marx Memorial (2007) title in 2007. He qualified for the World Cup (2011) through the 2011 Asian Continental championship and defeated Maxim Rodshtein in the first round, falling to Russian super-GM Dmitry Jakovenko in the second. In January 2012, Harikrishna won the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2011 - GMB with 9/13 (+6 -1 =6) and followed up in March by winning (on tiebreak) the huge 28th International Open at Cappelle-la-Grande with 7/9 and a 2783 TPR. In July 2012, placed =2nd (3rd on tiebreak) at the Benasque International Open in Spain and scored 7.5/11 at the Biel International Festival (Masters), a half point behind the leaders. He also represented India on board 2 at the Chess Olympiad (2012) in Istanbul.

A solid 6.5/13 at the Tata Steel (2013) super tournament at Wijk aan Zee has pushed him over 2700 for the first time. Unfortunately, a very poor 3/10 (+0 -4 =6) at the 2013 Capablanca Memorial will slash 23 points from his the level of his nominal rating in June 2013.

As of 1 May 2013, Harikrishna's standard rating is 2702, making him India's number 2 player behind Viswanathan Anand, number 7 in Asia and number 42 in the world. His blitz rating is 2631.