FIDE World Cup: Vidit, Harika and Nihal win tiebreak, join others in round four

While D Gukesh beat S. L. Narayanan, Praggnanandhaa got the better of Czech Republic’s David Navara to progress into the fourth round.

FILE PHOTO: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi of India. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ/The Hindu

All three Indians in action - Nihal Sarin, Vidit Gujrathi, and Harika Dronavalli won their respective tiebreak match on Monday to proceed in the fourth round of the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

This means India now will have seven players in the round of 32 to represent.

Vidit beat Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum in the sudden death after a six-match thrilling tiebreak. Two games of 25+10, two games of 10+5, two games of 5+3, and finally the result came in the 3+2 blitz game where Gujrathi got the better of the German under tremendous time pressure.

Harika’s game also went down the wire, and she was able to outsmart her opponent, Georgia’s IM Lela Javakhishvili, only in the second 3+2 game after playing seven tiebreakers before.

Earlier, Nihal cruised past Romania’s Bogdan Deac by beating him 2.5-1.5 in the 25+10 match to reach the next round.

Netherlands’ Anish Giri had to suffer a heartbreaking loss against local hero Nijat Abasov, who flagged the Dutch in the 5+3 match.

The results (involving Indians, third round, tie-breaker):

Open: Vidit Gujrathi (2719) bt Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 2672) 5-4; Nihal Sarin (2688) bt Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Rom, 2693) 2.5-1.5. Women: D. Harika (2500) bt Lela Javakhishvili (Geo, 2439) 5-4.

Pairings (prefix denotes seeding):

Open – 4th round: 8-D. Gukesh (2744) v 40-Andrey Esipenko (FIDE, 2683); 20-Vidit Gujrathi (2719) v 52-Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 2662); 36-Nihal Sarin (2688) v 4-Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE, 2779); 23-Arjun Erigaisi (2710) v 55-Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 2659); 31-R. Praggnanandhaa (2690) v 2-Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2787);

Women (Pre-quarterfinals): 3-K. Humpy (2553) v 14-Bela Khotenshvili (Geo, 2475); 10-D. Harika (2500) v 26-Eline Roebers (Ned, 2419).