FIDE Grand Prix chess | First win for Vidit

Harikrishna draws again

February 07, 2022 10:25 pm | Updated 10:25 pm IST - NEW DELHI

Vidit Gujrathi scored a much-needed victory over Russian talent Daniil Dubov in the third round of the FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Berlin on Sunday.

Vidit, who lost his opening round to fall back in the four-man Group C, is now in the second spot at 1.5 points — one behind leader Levon Aronian.

In a dominant show, Vidit trapped his rival’s rook and traded it for a knight. Later, he queened a central pawn for which Dubov had to give up his bishop. As a result, Vidit had an extra rook which proved decisive in 43 moves.

In Group D, P. Harikrishna also reached 1.5 points following a third successive draw. The experienced Indian faced USA’s Leinier Dominguez Perez for 33 moves when a three-fold repetition of moves ended the game. Harikrishna is tied for the second spot in the group.

Third-round results:

Group A: Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 1.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 1.5) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 1).

Group B: Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 1) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 1.5); Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 1.5) drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 2).

Group C: Vidit Gujrathi (1.5) bt Daniil Dubov (Rus, 1); Levon Aronian (USA, 2.5) bt Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1).

Group D: Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 2) drew with P. Harikrishna (1.5); Wesley So (USA, 2) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5).

0 / 0
Sign in to unlock member-only benefits!
  • Access 10 free stories every month
  • Save stories to read later
  • Access to comment on every story
  • Sign-up/manage your newsletter subscriptions with a single click
  • Get notified by email for early access to discounts & offers on our products
Sign in

Comments

Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.

We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of The Hindu and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.