Abhijeet Gupta once again provided the bright spot for the Indians with a fluent victory in Group ‘C’ after World champion Viswanathan Anand drew with Italy’s Fabiano Caruana in the premier section of the Corus chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Saturday.
On a day when Anand drew for the seventh time in as many games, USA’s Hikaru Nakamura ended leader Alexei Shirov’s unbeaten run following a 41-move victory. Top seed Magnus Carlsen defeated in-form Vassily Ivanchuk.
In Group ‘B’, P. Hari Krishna and Parimarjan Negi battled for 33 moves in Caro Kann before deciding to sign peace. Hari (4) shares the sixth place while Negi (3.5) holds the eight spot in the 14-player field, currently led by local hope Anish Giri with 5.5 points.
Meanwhile, in Group ‘C’, third seed Abhijeet Gupta jumped to the tied second spot after a 52-move win over tailender Sjoerd Plukkel. On a day when top seed Li Chao and leader Ray Robson lost, top Soumya Swaminathan managed her second draw after facing another Dutchman Stefan Kuipers.
The results (seventh round, Indians unless stated):
Group ‘A’: Fabiano Caruana (Ita, 2.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (3.5); Sergey Tiviakov (Ned, 2.5) drew with Peter Leko (Hun, 3.5); Jan Smeets (Ned, 1.5) drew with Leinier Dominguez (Cub, 4); Loek van Wely (Ned, 1.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 3.5); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 5) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 5.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5) bt Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr, 4); Nigel Short (Eng, 2.5) drew with Vladimir Kramnik (Rus, 4.5).
Group ‘B’: Parimarjan Negi (3.5) drew with P. Hari Krishna (4); Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5) drew with Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 4.5); David Howell (Eng, 4.5) bt Tomi Nyback (Fin, 2.5); Anna Muzychuk (Slo, 2.5) drew with Emil Sutovsky (Isr, 3); Arkadij Naiditsch (Ger, 4) drew with Ni Hua (Chn, 4.5); Wesley So (Phi, 4.5) bt Dmitri Reinderman (Ned, 1.5); Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 2) drew with Liviu Nisipeanu (Rom, 2,5).
Group ‘C’: Sjoerd Plukkel (Ned, 1) lost to Abhijeet Gupta (5); Stefan Kuipers (Ned, 3.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (1); Benjamin Bok (Ned, 2) lost to Robin Swinkels (Ned, 4.5); Daniele Vocaturo (Ita, 4.5) bt Ray Robson (USA, 5.5); Li Chao (Chn, 5) lost to Nils Grandelius (Swe, 3.5); Robin van Kampen (Ned, 4) drew with Kjetils Lie (Nor, 3.5); Peng Zhaoqin (Ned, 3.5) drew with Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 2.5).
