Praggnanandhaa beats Arjun Erigaisi to share lead at Tata Steel Chess Tournament

R Praggnanandhaa in joint lead with Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov after the third round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament

Wijk Aan Zee: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored a finely crafted victory over compatriot Arjun Erigaisi to share the lead with Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov after the third round of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament here.

Both Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov have 2.5 points each. It turned out to be an excellent day for the 19-year-old Indian as he handled the Catalan opening to perfection, getting a tiny advantage and squeezing out the defensive resources right from the early middle game stage.

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After the trade of Queens, the players reached a rook and knight endgame wherein Erigaisi’s fractured pawns on the queenside came under scrutiny. Slow manoeuvring ensued and Praggnanandhaa methodically won a pawn on the kingside before his rooks came in to play from the other flank.

The game lasted 60 moves handing Erigaisi his second defeat in three days after his opening-round loss to another compatriot P Harikrishna. World Champion D Gukesh had it easy as white as he played out a draw with top seed Fabiano Caruana of United States to take himself to two points out of a possible three in the first major chess tournament of the year.

Playing with white, was a rare game by Gukesh as he decided against taking any risks. The Queen pawn opening was met the Ragozine defense and Caruana acted true to the will of the position to expand his king-side pawns.

On another day, Gukesh would have gone all out but here, the Indian decided pretty soon that fighting for an advantage was probably not on cards. This was the first game to end in the Masters’ section and it just lasted 24 moves when the draw was agreed to video repetition of moves.

Harikrishna was held to a draw by debutant Leon Luke Mendonca who finally opened his account. The Nimzo Indian by Harikrishna did not have the desired impact as Mendonca, for once, decided to be very solid and not take too many chances. Harikrishna forced a perpetual in the end to move to 1.5 points.

With nine rounds still remaining in the first super tournament of the year, Gukesh, Caruana and Vincent Keymer of Germany share the third spot while Harikrishna is in the next bunch of four players on 1.5 points each.

In the challengers’ section, the Indian girls had a forgettable day as R Vaishali lost to Nogerbek Kazybek of Kazakhstan while Divya Deshmukh found her nemesis in Aydin Suleymanli of Azerbaijan.

It was a very entertaining day in the challengers for the chess buffs as all seven games ended decisively with the player as white winning all the games.

Results round 3: Masters: Anish Giri (Ned, 1) drew with Vladimir Fedoseev (Slo, 1.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 2); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 2.5) bt Erigaise Arjun (Ind, 0.5); Leon Luke Mendonca (Ind, 0.5) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind, 1.5); Max Warmerdam (Ned, 1) lost to Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 2.5); Wei Yi (Chn, 1.5) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger, 2); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1) drew with Alexey Sarana (Srb, 1.5).

Challengers: Aydin Suleymanli (Aze, 2) bt Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 0.5); Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Cze, 2.5) bt Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 1.5); Nogerbek Kazybek (Kaz, 1.5) bt R Vaishali (Ind, 1.5); Miaoyi Lu (Chn, 2.5) beat Svane Frederik (Ger, 1.5); Ediz Gurel (Tur, 2) bt Arthur Pijpers (Ned, 0.5); Oro Faustino (Arg, 1) bt Irina Bulmaga (Rom, 0); Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 2.5) beat Benjamin Bok (Ned, 1.5).