Praggnanandhaasurvives a scare;Nihalcrashes out

He started as one of many strongest favourites, however he was just about only one transfer away from an early exit. R. Praggnanandhaa, nonetheless, survived that scare, thanks in small measure to his opponent’s horrible mistake, went on to win a gruelling tie-breaker and entered the third spherical of the chess World Cup.

The third seed from Chennai lastly prevailed over the Uzbekistan-born Australian Temur Kuybokarov within the third set of tie-breakers at Resort Rio right here on Thursday.

Like him, S.L. Narayanan additionally progressed by successful each video games within the day’s third set of video games in opposition to his higher-rated Russian rival Nikita Vitiugov.

Vidit Gujrathi, V. Pranav and M. Pranesh had simpler passages into the third spherical, successful their first set of tie-breakers in opposition to Faustino Oro of Argentina, Aryan Tari of Norway and Dmitrij Kollars of Germany, respectively. But, there was disappointment for Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani and Karthikeyan Murali, who all misplaced.

So, out of the eight Indians to play the tie-breakers, 5 received and they’re going to be a part of 5 of their compatriots within the third spherical. D. Gukesh , Arjun Erigaisi, P. Harikrishna, Diptayan Ghosh and Karthik Venkataraman had certified on Wednesday itself, successful their matches within the classical format.

Nihal’s defeat was certainly an enormous setback for the host. The twenty second seed misplaced the primary tie-breaker and will solely draw within the second, as Greece’s Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis proved a thorn within the flesh for the Indians; he had overwhelmed Divya Deshmukh within the first spherical.

The highest seed to crash out on at the present time was the American Hans Niemann. The tenth seed was overwhelmed by Italy’s Lorenzo Lodici, whose win within the first tie-breaker sport proved sufficient to e-book an surprising ticket for the third spherical.

Important outcomes (second spherical): R. Praggnanandhaa bt Temur Kuybokarov (Aus) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0; Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) bt Dennis Makhnev (Kaz) 1.5-0.5; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) bt Gergely Kantor (Hun) 2-0; Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) bt Hans Niemann (USA) 1.5-0.5; Vidit Gujrathi bt Faustino Oro (Arg) 1.5-0.5; Yu Yangyi (Chn) bt Felix Blohberge (Aut) 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) bt Nihal Sarin 1.5-0.5; V. Pranav bt Aryan Tari (Nor) 1.5-0.5; M. Pranesh bt Dmitrij Kollars (Ger) 2-0; Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur) bt Bu Xiangzhi (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Daniil Dubo (Rus) bt Bai Jinshi (Chn) 1-1, 2-0; Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol) bt Maxime Lagarde (Fra) 1.5-0.5; S.L. Narayanan bt Nikita Vitiugov (Rus) ) 1-1, 1-1, 2-0; Pouya Idani (Ira) bt Karthikeyan Murali; 1-1, 1-1, 1.5-0.5; Samuel Sevian (USA) bt Tin Jingya (Sgp) 2-0; Daniel Dardha (Bel) bt Grigoriy Oparin (USA) 1.5-0.5; Vladislav Artemeiv (Rus) bt Haik Martirosyan (Arm) 1.5-0.5; Nils Grandelius (Swe) bt Etienne Barcot (Fra) 1.5-0.5; Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb) bt Maksim Chigaev (Esp) 2-0; Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) bt Raunak Sadhwani 2-0.