Indian Grandmasters Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi and R Praggnanandhaa were held to draws in their second-round matches in the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament. World No.1 Magnus Carlsen, however, scored his first win on Sunday.
Gujrathi drew in 27 moves against Fabiano Caruana (USA) with white, while Praggnanandhaa shared the point with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) in the second-round games. Praggnanandhaa and Duda played a very solid game in which White had a slight advantage that was virtually impossible to turn into something tangible. A draw came as a logical outcome.
Carlsen defeated Dutchman Anish Giri and joined Duda and Vidit Gujrathi at the top of the standings with 1.5 points. The only other winner of the day was Richard Rapport, who took full advantage of Jorden Van Foreest’s mistake in a knight endgame. All other games were drawn.
Gujrathi plays Daniil Dubov (Russia) in the third round later on Monday night and Praggnanandhaa takes on Van Foreest. In the Challengers section being played simultaneously, India's Arjun Erigaisi put it across Max Warmerdem in the second round. He lies in second spot along with compatriot Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Thai Dai Van Nguyen on 1.5 points.
Standings after Round 2: Masters: 1-3. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Magnus Calsen and Vidit Gujrathi – 1½ ; 4-11. Fabiano Caruana, Richard Rapport, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Sergey Karjakin, Andrey Esipenko, and Jorden Van Foreest – 1; 12-14, Sam Shankland, Nils Grandelius, Anish Giri
With inputs from PTI
