FIDE Grand Prix Tournament : First win for Vidit Gujrathi, Harikrishna draws again

Vidit, who lost his opening round to fall back in the four-man Group C is now in the second spot at 1.5 points – one behind leader Levon Aronian.

REPRESENTATIVE IMAGE: In Group D, P. Harikrishna also reached 1.5 points following a third successive draw.

Vidit Gujrathi scored a much-needed victory over Russian talent Daniil Dubov in the third round of the FIDE Grand Prix chess tournament in Berlin on Sunday.

Vidit, who lost his opening round to fall back in the four-man Group C is now in the second spot at 1.5 points – one behind leader Levon Aronian.

In a dominant show, Vidit trapped his rival's rook and traded it for a knight. Later, he 'queened' a central pawn for which Dubov had to give up this bishop. As a result, Vidit had an extra rook which proved decisive in 43 moves.

In Group D, P. Harikrishna also reached 1.5 points following a third successive draw. The experienced Indian faced USA's Leinier Dominguez Perez for 33 moves when a three-fold repetition of moves ended the game. Harikrishna is tied for the second spot in the group.

Third-round results:

Group A:  Alexander Grischuk (Rus, 1.5) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 1.5) bt Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 1).

Group B:  Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 1) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 1.5); Vladimir Fedoseev (Rus, 1.5) drew with Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 2).

Group C:  Vidit Gujrathi (1.5) bt Daniil Dubov (Rus, 1); Levon Aronian (USA, 2.5) bt Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1).

Group D:  Leinier Dominguez Perez (USA, 2) drew with P. Harikrishna (1.5); Wesley So (USA, 2) bt Alexei Shirov (Esp, 0.5).