Wijk Aan Zee (Netherlands), Jan 16 (PTI) Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi began his campaign at the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament with a win over American Sam Shankland, here.

After the rating favourites Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Anish Giri (the Netherlands) drew their games, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Gujrathi and Jorden van Foreest grabbed the lead with victories in round one, late on Saturday.

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Gujrathi, the India No.2 behind Viswanathan Anand, took advantage of a mistake by Shankland, playing black, on the 33rd move to grind out a win in 73 moves.

The other Indian player in the fray in the Masters section of the Tata Steel chess tournament - Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa opened with a draw against Anish Giri (the Netherlands) in 44 moves.

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The 16-year old Indian faced Giri in a rare line of the English Opening with Black. The Dutchman made a pawn sacrifice to grab the initiative, but the Indian youngster neutralised white's threats and safely played out a draw.

World No.1 Carlsen of Norway was held to a draw by Russia's Andrey Esipenko in 21 moves as chose to play it safe against the highly-rated opponent.

Caruana had the upper hand against Sergey Karjakin (Russia) but missed a couple of good attacking opportunities and allowed his opponent to escape with a draw.

In the second round later on Sunday night, Gujrathi faces Caruana while Praggnanandhaa takes on Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland).

A total of 14 players are taking part in the round-robin tournament featuring 13 rounds with Carlsen headlining a strong field.

Meanwhile in the Challengers event, being held simultaneously, experienced Indian GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly began with a victory over Marc Andria Maurizzi of France. Arjun Erigaisi, the top-seed, was held to a draw by Lucas van Foreest (the Netherlands).

(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)