Indian Grandmasters Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi and R. Praggnanandhaa drew their games in round six of the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here.
Gujrathi shared honours with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) to take his tally to four points while Praggnanandhaa (2.5 points) held Sam Shankland (U.S.) to a draw late on January 21.
World No.1 Magnus Carlsen registered his second win. He defeated Richard Rapport to join the leaders Gujrathi and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who drew their games.
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In the match against Gujrathi, Duda demonstrated very deep opening preparation with Black in the Semi-Tarrasch Defence. The moment White’s pieces started lurking around the Black’s king, the Polish GM reacted with a nice tactical sequence giving up two minor pieces for a rook and advancing his queenside pawns. The opponents eventually agreed upon a draw by repetition.
Shankland and Praggnanandhaa made just a few original moves in a sharp line of Sveshnikov Sicilian. The American GM introduced a novelty on the move 21, but the Indian youngster demonstrated that Black had no problem reaching a draw despite a two-pawn deficit.
Sergey Karjakin scored his first victory in the tournament over Jorden Van Foreest, while Fabiano Caruana suffered a defeat at the hands of Anish Giri.
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Meanwhile in the Challengers event being held simultaneously, 18-year old Indian GM Arjun Erigaisi defeated compatriot Surya Shekhar Ganguly in 42 moves to take his tally to 5.5 points. He leads the rest of the field by 1.5 points with two others in joint second with 4 points.
Standings after Round 6
Masters: 1-3. Vidit Gujrathi, Маgnus Carlsen, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 4 points; 4-5. Richard Rapport, Andrey Esipenko 3.5; 6-8. Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Anish Giri, Sergey Karjakin 3; 9-13. Sam Shankland, Fabiano Caruana, Daniil Dubov, Jorden Van Foreest, R Praggnanandhaa 2.5; 14.Nils Grandelius – 1.5.