Vishwanathan Anand, SP Sethuraman ease into second round
What's the story
On Monday, chess mastermind Viswanathan Anand secured his place in the second round by holding Malaysia's Li Tian Yeoh to a draw at the ongoing Chess World Cup in Tbilisi. SP Sethuraman pulled off a big upset as he progressed to round two as well, by beating former champion Ruslan Ponomariov. Let us find out more about the 2017 Chess World Cup.
The gameplay
Anand recovered well to draw the match
Anand had already gotten off to a winning start earlier in the day and so started with a one-point lead. However, the 47-year-old 's lacklustre play midway through the match landed him in a tight spot. His Malaysian opponent, though, was equally culpable, if not more, of making some weak moves as the game was drawn in 71 moves.
Other results
Gujrathi into the second round, Adhiban, Karthikeyan still fighting
Among the Indians, Vidit Gujrathi secured a win as he made his black pieces count and score a fine victory over Delgado Ramirez. Apart from Anand, Sethuraman and Gujrathi, Karthikeyan Murali also managed to stun Francisco Vallejo to take their match into the tie-breaker. B Adhiban, as well, forced his game into a tie-breaker against Ngoc Truong Son but Deep Sengupta was knocked out.
Spectacular recovery
Harikrishna takes game into tie-breaker
Having lost the first game, Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna recovered in time to win the second game and take the first round contest against Yuri Gonzalez Vidal into the tie-breaker. Playing with white pieces, Harikrishna started off with carefully calculated moves but the Cuban tried to put Harikrishna on the back foot. Finally, Vidal made a miscalculated move and Harikrishna seized the opportunity.