Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Goa
On a day dominated by draws, all five Indians settled for the split verdict in Game 1 of the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup. It was a quaint Tuesday in Goa as just two of the 15 completed games produced results. At the time of sending this, one game not featuring Indians was going on. Levon Aronian of the USA and Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara of Mexico were the ones to post victories. That means a majority of the match-ups will be decided after the second game of this round on Wednesday. If even that doesn’t produce a result, these games will spill over to the tie-breakers on Thursday.
Most Indian eyes were on R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and P Harikrishna. Erigaisi’s game against Peter Leko of Hungary was possibly the most high-profile one. The Indian has been one of the most notable players on the world circuit for over a year. Leko is a veteran, who came close to winning the World Championship in 2004. If one expected fireworks, those expectations were dissipated early. Playing black, Erigaisi chose truce after 16 moves in just over an hour. Is he preserving himself for an assault with white in the next game? One has to wait and watch.
According to the experts doing live commentary from the venue in the Fan Zone, Pragg was under pressure against Daniil Dubov of Russia. They were saying that somewhere in the middle of the long game that lasted close to four hours, the last edition’s runner-up had to find the precise move to prevent his opponent from taking control. After a long deliberation, Pragg made exactly that move. Dubov didn’t find the best response and despite a slight advantage, was forced to a draw. It’s been an eventful campaign for the Indian so far and he has found ways at the most appropriate moments to stay alive.
Harikrishna, one of the most in-form players of this knockout competition, was almost even throughout his game against Nils Grandelius of Sweden. The game lasted about two-and-a-half hours and neither side could reach a dominating position. They sparred for some time before choosing to call it a day. The Indian was not too unhappy with the outcome. He said that there was no situation where one of the two could have forced the issue.
Karthik Venkataraman was pitted against Le Quang Liem of Vietnam. There is huge gap between the players. The Indian has an ELO rating of 2579. It’s well below his rival’s 2729. This difference was not quite seen in the game. Karthik of Tirupati, who has beaten a few higher-rated opponents earlier in the tournament, was up to the challenge and held his own in an equally-contested game, where no side appeared to have a sizeable advantage. Karthik should be happy with this and hope that he can spring a surprise in the next game.
World junior champion V Pranav held the upper hand against Nodirbek Yakubboev for a long time. The player from Uzbekistan, however, held firm and refused his opponent entry into his territory. This game went on for a lengthy five hours and 21 minutes. Pranav should not feel disheartened though, because he kept Yakubboev under control. Because he could not find that decisive moment or move, whatever one may call it, he could not secure the point. Both of these players will come back tired. Anything can happen after that.
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