Isle of Man Open: Vidit Gujrathi holds World Champion Carlsen
Magnus Carlsen continues to lead field with six points while the Indian is in joint second spot with four others.
Published : Sep 30, 2017 11:40 IST
India's Vidit Santosh Gujrathi produced one of his best performances when he held world champion Magnus Carlsen to a stalemate in the ongoing seventh round of the Isle of Man Chess Tournament on Saturday.
Playing in the first board, Gujrathi started with black pieces but Carlsen wasn't able to thwart the Indian's plans. By the 15th move, it was clear where the match was headed to. By the 31st move, both the players agreed to a draw. It was, incidentally, the first time the duo were meeting in the classical format.
Gujarathi now has 5.5 points while Carlsen leads the pack with 6 points.
Gujrathi, who was in sole second position after the sixth round, was joined by US GMs Fabiano Caruana, Hiraku Nakamura, Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and Emil Sutovsky of Israel in the second spot as they won their respective matches.
In another match, former world champion Viswanathan Anand drew with Lenderman Aleksandr. Both the players are now ranked joint third with 5 points respectively.
In the 11th board, S.P. Sethuraman held Vallejo Pons Francisco while Aravindh Chidamabaram lost to China's Hou Yifan.
R. Praggnanandhaa too bit the dust when he went down fighting to Akobian Varuzhan.
GM Harika Dronavalli too didn't have a good day in office as she went down to Russian Vladimir Kramnik.