Showing steady improvement with every passing day, Vidit Gujrathi stunned Peter Svidler and David Anton on the final day but fell short of a quarterfinal berth in the $100,000 Skilling Open online chess tournament on Tuesday.
After scoring 3.5 from the first 10 rounds, Gujrathi scored 3 points from the last five, in spite of losing to league-topper Magnus Carlsen.
He finished with 6.5 points to finish tied-12th along with Anton.
Top eight
The top eight performers — Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Levon Aronian, Teimour Radjabov, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri — made it to the two-day quarterfinals.
The other eight players, including Gujrathi, will have to be satisfied with $2500 each.
Giri, leader on the first two days, remained winless on the final day and just about survived successive defeats to Alireza Firouzja and Aronian before being the last to qualify following a five-way tie for the sixth spot.
The results:
15th round: David Anton (Esp, 6.5) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (6.5); Magnus Carlsen (Rus, 9) drew with Peter Svidler (Rus, 6); Levon Aronian (Arm 8.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 9).
Teimour Radjabov (Aze, 8) drew with Wesley So (USA, 8.5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 8.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 8).
Ding Liren (Chn, 7.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 8); Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 4.5) lost to Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 5.5); Alireza Firouzja (8) lost to Quang Liem Le (Vie, 8).
14th round: Gujrathi drew with Radjabov; So drew with Carlsen; Nakamura bt Firouzja; Svidler lost to Nepomniachtchi; Karjakin lost to Aronian.
Giri drew with Duda; Quang bt Anton; Vachier-drew with Ding.
13th round: Carlsen bt Gujrathi; Anton lost to Nakamura; Nepomniachtchi drew with So; Aronian bt Giri.
Radjabov drew with Quang; Firouzja bt Karjakin; Svidler bt Vachier; Duda bt Ding.
12th round: Gujrathi drew with Nepomniachtchi; Quang drew with Carlsen; Nakamura drew with Radjabov; So drew with Svidler; Giri lost to Firouzja; Karjakin lost to Anton; Ding drew with Aronian; Vachier bt Duda.
11th round: Svidler lost to Gujrathi; Carlsen drew with Nakamura; Nepomniachtchi drew with Quang.
So drew with Vachier; Aronian bt Duda; Anton drew with Giri; Radjabov bt Karjakin; Firouzja bt Ding.
Standings (after 15 rounds): 1-2. Carslen, Nakamura; 3-5. So, Nepomniachtchi, Aronian, 6-10. Radjabov, Lagrave, Giri, Firouzja, Quang, 11. Ding, 12-13. Gujrathi, Anton, 14. Svidler, 15. Karjakin, 16. Duda.
Quarterfinal pairings: Carlsen-Giri; Aronian-Nepomniachtchi; So-Radjabov; Vachier-Nakamura .
