Chess World Cup: Adhiban, Nihal bow out

The duo's defeat leaves only two Indians - P. Hari Krishna and Vidit Gujrathi - in the third round.

Published : Sep 15, 2019 20:39 IST

Nihal lost with black pieces to Azerbaijani Eltaj Safarli in the first game in 61 moves.
Nihal lost with black pieces to Azerbaijani Eltaj Safarli in the first game in 61 moves.
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Nihal lost with black pieces to Azerbaijani Eltaj Safarli in the first game in 61 moves.

B. Adhiban and Nihal Sarin crashed out of the chess World Cup after losing their second-round rapid tie-break games by an identical 1.5-0.5 margin here on Sunday.

Adhiban lost with white pieces to China’s Yu Yangyi in 54 moves in the first game and drew the second with black in 40 moves.

Read: India bags 125 medals in Western Asian youth chess championship

Nihal lost with black pieces to Azerbaijani Eltaj Safarli in the first game in 61 moves. In the second, Nihal blundered on the 16th move by choosing not to capture his rival’s knight. Thereafter, Safarli made two successive moves of sub-optimum strength and let the Indian youngster take a draw in 25 moves.

The duo's defeat leaves only two Indians - P. Hari Krishna and Vidit Gujrathi - in the third round. On Tuesday, Hari plays Russia's Kirill Alekseenko and Vidit takes on USA's Wesley So.

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