Panjim, Nov 5: Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh caused the biggest upset of the World Chess Cup by ousting former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia with a win in the second game of the second round here Wednesday.
In what was simply a one sided affair, Ghosh did not give any chance to Nepomniachtchi who was rather erratic with his white pieces.
The opening gave Ghosh an unclear position early and Nepomniachtchi missed a simple tactic early in the middle game which cost him a pawn.
Once the technicalities arrived Ghosh was at the top of his game and kept on increasing pressure by exchanging pieces at regular intervals and soon it was a rook and pawns endgame on board in no time.
“This is certainly the biggest victory of my chess career, beating Nepo in a match,” said Ghosh after his win.
Earlier, Grandmaster P Harikrishna became the first Indian to advance to the third round, crushing Russian Arseniy Nesterov while world junior champion V Pranav suffered a huge defeat against Aryan Tari of Norway.
A leader with the benefit of winning with black V Pranav blew his chances away and his loss to Tari means that both will now play the tiebreak games to determine the way ahead.
Highest rated Indian Arjun Erigaisi scored his second victory on the trot defeating Martin Petrov of Bulgaria and walked in to the last 64 stage in the USD two million prize money tournament.
Arjun was in control right from the opening as Petrov spent huge amount of time trying to find out ways to complicate matters but all Arjun had to do was keep his position intact. In the endgame, Petrov lost a pawn and Arjun romped home again.
World Champion D Gukesh also entered the third round after beating Nogerbek Kazybek of Kazakhstan.
The victory with black pieces came easy for Gukesh after a draw in the first game as Kazybek was under pressure right from early stages of the middle game and Gukesh played out one of his famous grinds again by increasing his advantage slowly but surely.
R Praggnanadhaa will have to come back and fight in the tiebreaker against Temur Kuybokarov of Australian after both settled for their second draw in the tournament. Praggnanandhaa showed his intent to play for a win by going for the Pirc defense as black but Kuybokarov remained on guard for the entire part and reached a queen and minor piece endgame. The draw was agreed to after 46 moves.
Amongst other Indians in the fray Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Aronyak Ghosh ended their campaign in the cup after losing by an identical 0.5-1.5 margin against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Levon Aronian of United States respectively.
Indian results round 2 game 2:
Nogerbek Kazybek (Kaz) lost to D Gukesh 0.5-1.5; Arjun Erigaisi beat Martin Petrov (Bul) 2-0; Temur Kuybokarov (Aus) drew with R Praggnanandhaa 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 0.5-1.5; Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid) lost to Diptayan Ghosh 0.5-1.5; Aronyak Ghosh drew with Levon Aronian (Usa) 0.5-1.5; Oro Faustino (Arg) drew with Vidit Santosh Gujrathi 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Aravindh Chithambaram Karthik Venkataraman; Nihal Sarin Kourkoulos-Arditis Stamatis (Gre); P Harikrishna beat Arseniy Nesterov (Fid) 1.5-0.5; Pa Iniyan Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Cze); Murali Karthikeyan drew with Idani Pouya (Iri) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Nikita Vituigov (Eng) drew with S L Narayanan 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Dmitrij Kollars (Ger) M Pranesh; V Pranav lost to Aryan Tari (Nor) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Raunak Sadhwani drew with Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) 1-1 goes to tiebreak. (PTI)
