Chess
Tata Steel Chess: Pragg, Arjun earn draws; Gukesh falls to second straight loss
R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi drew their respective round 2 games even as compatriot D Gukesh fell to his second straight loss at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess Masters section.
D Gukesh (Source: FIDE)
India's teenage Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi drew their respective round 2 games even as compatriot D Gukesh fell to his second straight loss at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess Masters section.
Up against GM Wesley So, Arjun Erigaisi displayed some strong defensive skills with the black pieces as he churned out a draw from an inferior position.
Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, settled for an easy draw with the black pieces against GM Levon Aronian in what was one of the quickest games of the day.
Coming off a loss in his first round against Ding Liren, D Gukesh was in for a rude shock as Dutch GM Anish Giri came up with a double sacrifice to decimate the Indian in a sensational fashion.
After two rounds, Gukesh is the only player yet to open his account and sits last at 14th position while Arjun and Pragg with two draws apiece take the eighth and ninth spot.
Vaishali loses, Adhiban draws
In the Challengers section, India's R Vaishali went down to Alexander Donchenko with the white pieces after she ran out of time by the 31st move.
On the other hand, Baskaran Adhiban missed out on a simple trick to gain an advantage over Thomas Beerdsen before blundering to find himself in a completely losing situation. The Indian, however, fought back well from there to earn a draw.
After the second round of games, Adhiban is takes the fifth place in the Challengers standings while Vaishali sits at 12th. The 13-year-old Abhimanyu Mishra of USA leads the charts.
