Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
It was a mixed day with more good than bad for the Indian stars at the FIDE World Cup. They didn’t suffer upset defeats, but not all of them won either. Among those who drew their first games in Round 3 of the knockout competition were D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi. Arjun Erigaisi and Pentala Harikrishna scored comprehensive wins, which means they need a draw on Saturday to reach the fourth round.
Also drawing his game was Diptayan Ghosh. The lesser-known Grandmaster from Kolkata, who caused the shock of the event by eliminating Russian superstar Ian Nepomniachtchi in the previous round, gave a good account of himself again. He held Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia to keep alive his hopes of reaching the next round. If there is another draw on Saturday, these two players will head into a tie-breaker to be played in the shorter formats.
Gukesh, the youngest-ever world champion, has been on and off this year. He had some remarkable results like beating world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the classical as well as rapid formats. At the same time, he lost against some opponents rated well below him, which pushed him out of the top 10 for a month. Rated No. 9 in the latest list published in October, the 19-year-old was expected to beat Frederik Svane, who is ranked 85th in the world. But the German turned out to be a tough nut to crack.
Praggnanandhaa was the first player to finish his game. It was just about an hour after the start that he decided to end his game against Robert Hovhannisyan. The Armenian is ranked 97th and the Indian seventh. But after a gruelling tie-breaker in the previous round just a day earlier when he came close to getting eliminated, the player from Chennai possibly didn’t want to exert himself and opted to play safe. This suggests that he will come out stronger and sharper on Saturday.
Erigaisi has been on song in Goa. Among the top 50 players who got byes into the second round, he has won all three games that he has played so far. Against Shamsiddin Vokhidov of Uzbekistan, the world No. 6 scored a crucial win, which means he will not be under a lot of pressure in the second game. Harikrishna, too, lived up to expectations and put it across Belgium’s Daniel Dardha, who is regarded as one of the brightest upcoming talents in the world. Vidit was held by Sam Shankland of the USA.
At the time of filing this report, India’s V Pranav, R Pranesh and SL Narayanan were yet to finish their games. Karthik Venkataraman drew his game.
Follow Revsportz for latest sports news