Chess World Cup | Arjun registers win; Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa held

Fans queued up to have a look at the young superstars of Indian chess at Resort Rio here on Tuesday. That queue, to see the likes of D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, is getting longer, and longer, reflecting not just the newer heights they continue to scale, but the rapid increase in popularity of the mind game.

Among India’s terrific trio, the top three seeds at the World Cup, only second-seeded Arjun was able to post a win. Top seed Gukesh and the No. 3 seed R. Praggnanandhaa had to settle for draws. That means, they have to win on Wednesday to advance to the third round without having to play the tie-breaker games.

On the top board, Gukesh, who had white pieces, was made to play 84 moves by Kazakhstan’s Kazybek Nogerbek. The game, featuring a rook-and-minor-piece ending, went all the way, in fact, with just two kings remaining on the board.

On the third board, Praggnanandhaa, who was the runner-up in the last edition of the tournament, was held by Temur Kuybokarov of Australia, for whom it was an excellent result with black pieces. On the second board, however, white prevailed, with Arjun cruising to a 37-move victory over Bulgaria’s Martin Petrov.

Arjun was the only one to get a win among the top seeds. Dutchman Anish Giri and American Wesley So, seeded fourth and fifth, were held by Bojan Maksimovic (Bosnia) and Titas Stremavicius (Lithuania).

Besides Arjun, V. Pranav was the only Indian to post a win on the day. He defeated Norway’s Aryan Tari.

Important results (second round): D. Gukesh drew with Kazybek Nogerbek (Kaz); Martin Petrov (Bul) lost to Arjun Erigaisi; R. Praggnanandhaa drew with Temur Kuybokarov (Aus); Bojan Maksimovic (Bih) drew with Anish Giri (Ned); Wesley So (USA) drew with Titas Stremavicius (Lit); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) bt Grergely Kantor (Hun); Dennis Makhnev (Kaz) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Vladislav Kovalev (Blr) lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger); Wei Yi (Chn) bt Kacper Piorun (Pol); Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) drew with Hans Niemann (USA); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) bt Surya Shekhar Ganguly; Lorenzo Luis Supi (Bra) lost to Richard Rapport (Hun); Le Quang Liem (Vie) drew with Baadur Jobava (Geo); Levon Aronian (USA) bt Aronyak Ghosh; Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) drew with Hans Niemann (USA); Diptayan Ghosh drew with Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus).

Vidit Gujrathi drew with Faustino Oro (Arg); Karthik Venkataraman drew with Aravindh Chithambaram; Stamatis Kourkoulos-Arditis (Gre) drew with Nihal Sarin; Aryan Tari (Nor) lost to V. Pranav; Rasmus Svane (Ger) drew with P. Harikrishna; Dmitrij Kollars (Ger) drew with M. Pranesh; Thai Dai Van Nguyen (Cze) drew with Pa. Iniyan; Pouya Idani (Ira) drew with Karthikeyan Murali. Hovhannisyan (Arm) drew with Raunak Sadhwani.