Chess World Cup: Vidit advances, Praggnanandhaa bows out

India No. 3 Vidit Gujrathi registered a 2-0 win over Jeffrey Xiong on Friday to advance to the fifth round in the FIDE chess World Cup.

File picture of Vidit Gujrathi.

Vidit Gujrathi became the first Indian to reach the fifth round of the chess World Cup when he completed a 2-0 drubbing of USA’s Jeffery Xiong in Sochi on Friday.

The victory also saw Vidit overtake 23rd-ranked P. Harikrishna in live ratings and occupy the 21st spot. Viswanathan Anand heads the Indian list by holding the 14th place on the world ranking list.

READ: Praggnanandhaa holds Vachier-Lagrave to draw in game one, Vidit wins

It was a double blow for Harikrishna as he joined R. Praggnanandhaa in exiting the competition. Iran’s M. Amin Tabatabaei held Harikrishna in 115 moves on Friday for a 1.5-0.5 victory.

Earlier, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ended R. Praggnanandhaa’s campaign by winning by a similar margin after easily taking the second game.