FIDE Chess World Cup: Adhiban, Priyanka into second round, Harsha misses out

Adhiban produced glimpses of his best form in dismissing Andorra’s Lance Henderson de La Fuente 2-0, winning the 25-minute rapid games in 40 and 25 moves.

File Photo: Adhiban next plays Russian Daniil Dubov, rated over 125 points higher, in the next round. | Photo Credit: Velankanni Raj B/ The Hindu

B. Adhiban and N. Priyanka progressed to the second round of the FIDE World Cup after coming through tie-break rapid games in Baku, Azerbaijan, on Tuesday.

However, Harsha Bharathakoti lost out on an opportunity to play Magnus Carlsen in the second round after failing to get past Georgia’s Levan Pantsulaia.

Adhiban produced glimpses of his best form in dismissing Andorra’s Lance Henderson de La Fuente 2-0, winning the 25-minute rapid games in 40 and 25 moves. He next plays Russian Daniil Dubov, rated over 125 points higher, in the next round.

In the women’s section, Priyanka won the second rapid game against Italy’s Marin Brunello for a 1.5-0.5 win. In the second round, Priyanka plays compatriot K. Humpy.

The action comes to life on Wednesday when the seeded players open their campaigns.

The results (involving Indians, Round 1, rapid tie-break):

Open: Levan Pantsulaia (Geo) bt Harsha Bharathakoti 1.5-0.5; B. Adhiban bt Lance Henderson de La Fuente (And) 2-0; Women: N. Priyanka bt Marina Brunello (Ita) 1.5-0.5.

Second-round pairings (involving Indians, with rating):

Open: S. L. Narayanan (2656)-Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 2628); D. Gukesh (2744)-Misratdin Iskadrov (Aze, 2551); Abhimanyu Puranik (2605)-Peter Svidler (FIDE, 2688); B. Adhiban (2587)-Daniil Dubov (FIDE, 2716); Vidit Gujrathi (2719)-Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre, 2587); Nihal Sarin (2688)-Alex Bachmann (Par, 2604); Arjun Erigaisi (2710)-Sergie Azarov (FIDE, 2589); R. Praggnanandhaa (2690)-Maxime Lagarde (2599); Karthik Venkataraman (2565)-Hikaru Nakamura (2789).

Women: R. Vaishali (2431)-Pauline Gulchard (Fra, 2384); Mary Ann Gomes (2326)-Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2552); K. Humpy (2553)-N. Priyanka (2293); D. Harika (2500)-Michalina Rudzinska (Pol, 2257); Divya Deshmukh (2400)-Hoang Thanh Trang (Hun, 2402).