P Harikrishna and Nihal Sarin registered their second consecutive wins while Vidit Gujrathi made the most of the white pieces to advance to the second round of the Fide World Cup 2019 in Khanty Mansiysk, Russia on Wednesday.
Harikrishna, playing white in the second game of round 1, got the better of Yuri Gonzalez Vidal of Cuba in 42 moves while Sarin upset the much higher ranked Jorge Cori for the second successive game in just 29 moves to reach the second round.
The other Indians to advance to the next round included Gujrathi, who had struggled to find a way past Alan Pichot of Argentina in the opening game. But on Wednesday, the Indian made a strong start and forced his opponent into surrender after 43 moves. B Adhiban played it safe with white pieces against Eduardo Iturrizaga Bonelli of Venezuela to sign a peace treaty in 36 moves to advance to the next round.
It was overall a fruitful day for Indian chess players in the tournament with only one, M Karthikeyan, of the 10 participants being knocked out of the tournament.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly grabbed full point in a rook-bishop end game in 57 moves against Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia, SL Narayanan also managed to end on the winning side of a Rook-pawn endgame against the higher rated David Anton Guijarro of Spain while SP Sethuraman picked up a full point with black pieces against Tamir Nabaty Israel to force a tie-break to decide the first round winner.
Abhijeet Gupta and Aravindh Chithambaram will also be contesting in a tie-break against Anton Korobov and Michael Adams respectively after drawing both their classical games in first round.
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
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