Prodigies R. Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi won three games on the trot to share the second spot behind Magnus Carlsen in the Julius Baer Generation Cup online chess tournament on Sunday.
After four rounds, played on a format that allows three points for a win and one for draw, an unbeaten Carlsen collected 10 points, one more than Praggnanandhaa, Arjun, veteran Vassily Ivanchuk and rising American youngster Hans Moke Niemann.
B. Adhiban (one point), the other Indian in the fray, could draw the first round but lost the rest to be 15th in the 16-player field.
Praggnanandhaa continued his stunning form in the million-dollar Champions Chess Tour by accounting for day’s hero Ivanchuk (Ukraine), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) and seasoned campaigner Boris Geland (Israel) but lost to fellow youngster Christopher Woojin Yoo (USA) in the fourth.
Arjun, who started by losing to Carlsen, recovered to nail Adhiban, Le Quang Liem (Vietnam) and David Navara (Czech Republic).
Though Carlsen led following victories over Arjun, Adhiban and Le Quang Liem besides a second round draw with Anish Giri, the day’s hero was Ivanchuk.
Ivanchuk, 53, made light of his loss to Praggnanandhaa but bounced back to defeat Ivan Saric (Croatia), Anish and Duda.
Adibhan, however, had a forgettable day. He started well with a draw against German youngster Vincent Kaymer but lost to Arjun, Carlsen and Giri.
First loss for Vaishali
R. Vaishali (0.5 points) lost to joint leader Alina Kashliinskaya (Poland, 1.5) in 40 moves in the second round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix chess tournament in Astana (Kazakhstan) on Monday.
