Sports News | Chess World Cup: Vidit Holds Vasif Durarbayli in Game 1
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. India No.3 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and his opponent Vasif Durarbayli of Azerbaijan played out a draw in the first game of the two-game mini match in the fifth round the FIDE chess World Cup here on Sunday.
Sochi (Russia), Jul 25 (PTI) India No.3 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and his opponent Vasif Durarbayli of Azerbaijan played out a draw in the first game of the two-game mini match in the fifth round the FIDE chess World Cup here on Sunday.
Grandmaster Gujrathi, ranked 22 in the world, and enjoying a higher FIDE rating than his rival, settled for a draw in 56 moves in a Slav variation game which stretched for over four hours.
He is the only Indian in the fray in the men's section after Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and P Harikrishna bowed out with defeats to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and M Amin Tabatabaei (Iran) respectively in the fourth round.
Gujrathi and Durarbayli will face off in the second game on Monday and further in a tie-break (rapid followed by Blitz) on Tuesday if things are equal after the two classical games.
Tournament favourite and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway was held to a draw in game one by Russia's Andrey Espineko. All the other games in round five except for the one in which Haik M Matrirsoyan beat Tabatabeai ended in a stalemate.
(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)