Chess World Cup | Vidit Gujrathi amongst four Indians to advance to second round

09/12/2019

India had a pretty decent start at the Chess World Cup with the likes of Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna, Nihal Sarin, and B Adhiban advancing to the next round. Other results saw only one Indian getting eliminated in the first round while five others managed to force a tie-breaker on the opening day.

P Harikrishna was playing with the white pieces in the second game of the first round and had an easy affair against Cuba’s Yuri Gonzalez Vidal as he won in just 42 moves. Nihal Sarin, on the other hand, caused an upset against much higher ranked Jorge Cori in just 29 moves to advance to the next round.

Among others, while Gujrathi had to struggle to make his way past Argentina’s Alan Pichot opening game, Wednesday saw the Indian making a strong start that forced his opponent to surrender after just 43 moves. B Adhiban had a smooth run as he played it safe with white pieces against Venezuela’s Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli as they signed a peace treaty in 36 moves with the Indian advancing.

Among the good results, M Karthikeyan was the odd one out who had to leave the tournament midway.

As many as five Indian competitors ended up drawing their matches, and they were Surya Shekhar Ganguly, SL Narayanan, and SP Sethuraman, who were against Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev, Spain’s David Anton Guijarro and Israel’s Tamir Nabaty respectively to force a tie-break. Apart from them, Abhijeet Gupta and Aravindh Chithambaram would also be playing in a tie-break against Anton Korobov and Michael Adams respectively.

India’s results (1st round)

P Harikrishna (2746) defeated Yuri Gonzalez Vidal (Cuba, 2552) 2-0

Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2658) drew with Vladimir Fedoseev (Russia, 2664) 1-1

M. Karthikeyan (2617) lost to Ernesto Inarkiev (Russia, 2693) 0.5-1.5

Vidit Gujrathi (2718) beat Alan Pichot (Argentina, 2600) 1.5-0.5

Aravindh Chithambaram (2609) drew with Michael Adams (England, 2694) 1-1

B Adhiban (2639) beat Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli (Venezuela, 2626) 1.5-0.5

S P Sethuraman (2624) drew with Tamir Nabaty (Israel, 2658) 1-1

Nihal Sarin (2610) beat Jorge Cori (Peru, 2676) 2-0

SL Narayanan (2611) drew with David Anton Guijarro (Spain, 2674) 1-1

Abhijeet Gupta (2609) drew with Anton Korobov (Ukraine, 2679) 1-1