Anand held, three Indians among 20 leaders

The Indian Grandmaster dropped half a point to Germany’s Jonas Lampert in the second round; National junior champion Harsha Bharathakoti caused the biggest upset beating 25th seed Varuzhan Akobian.

Viswanathan Anand dropped half a point to Germany’s Jonas Lampert in the second round of the Isle of Man chess tournament on Sunday.

Viswanathan Anand dropped half a point to Germany’s Jonas Lampert in the second round of the Isle of Man chess tournament here on Sunday.

On a day when D. Harika, Swapnil Dhopade and S. L. Narayanan were part of a 20-player leaders’ group headed by Magnus Carlsen, Anand forced a

draw by perpetual checks in 28 moves.

Among the Indians, National junior champion Harsha Bharathakoti caused the biggest upset by beating 25th seed Varuzhan Akobian, rated 2662.

On the other hand, in Georgia in the four-game final of the World Cup chess, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren played out a third successive draw on Monday.

The results (involving Indians):

Second round: Jonas Lampert (Ger, 1.5) drew with Viswanathan Anand (1.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (1) lost to Michael Adams (Eng, 2); N. R. Visakh (1) lost to Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 2); Francisco Pons Vallejo (Esp, 2) bt P. Magesh Chandran (1); C. R. G. Krishna (1.5) drew with S. P. Sethuraman (1.5); S. L. Narayanan (2) bt Ojas Kulkarni (1); Swapnil Dhodade (2) bt Alina L’Ami (Rou, 1); Michael Babar (Ger, 1) lost to D. Harika (2); Martin Zumsande (Ger, 0.5) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (1.5); Raja Harshit (1) drew with B. Adhiban (1); Arjun Kalyan (0.5) lost to Jones Gawain (Eng, 1.5); Alexander Raizantsev (Rus, 1) drew with S. Kidambi (1); Harsha Bharathakoti (1.5) bt Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 0.5); Fenil Shah (1) drew with Dennis Wagner (Ger, 1).