On a day when some of India’s top grandmasters, like world champion D Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi were held to draws at the FIDE World Cup, world junior champion Pranav V took down Aryan Tari, currently the third-ranked Norwegian grandmaster in the FIDE ratings list.
While there wasn’t a significant difference between their ratings, Tari was recently a second for World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana. Of the 17 Indians in action in game 1 of the World Cup’s second round, 13 were held to draws.
Of the four Indians who played decisive games on Tuesday, Arjun Erigaisi delivered a comprehensive victory over Martin Petrov, forcing a resignation from the Bulgarian in just 37 moves after a series of errors from Petrov, which left him with a knight and a pawn less on the board when he decided to wave the white flag of surrender.
Gukesh, Pragg held to draws
Gukesh, playing Kazybek Nogerbek of Kazakhstan, and Pragg, taking on Temur Kuybokarov of Australia, were held to draws. Both of them will be back on the board on Wednesday with black pieces, hoping to secure wins and avoid needing to scrap their way through tiebreaks.
Gukesh and Pragg in action in the FIDE world Cup Round 2. (Express Photo | Amit Kamath)
Gujrathi, in particular, was lucky to escape with a draw in the game against Faustino Oro, the 12-year-old nicknamed the Messi of Chess, who is chasing the tag of being the world’s youngest grandmaster after getting his first GM norm and crossing the 2500 rating threshold at the Legends & Prodigies tournament in Madrid a couple of months ago.
Playing with white pieces, the 31-year-old Indian was in a dire time crunch on the clock after using an hour for his first 12 moves, meaning he needed to make 28 moves with just half an hour.
But the game ended instead in a 28-move draw, which makes tomorrow’s second game a dogfight with the Indian having white pieces.
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In other significant game 1 results from Tuesday, grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh held Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, who has fought two world championship battles in his career, to a draw.
Meanwhile, Aronyak Ghosh, the only Indian international master still left standing in the field, was handed a defeat by Armenia-born American grandmaster Levon Aronian.
© The Indian Express Pvt Ltd
