Displaying sound defence and a sharp eye for tactics, Vidit Gujrathi stunned Russian super talent Daniil Dubov to emerge as the leader after three rounds of the Masters section of Tata Steel chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Monday.
Vidit (2.5 points) had to handle immense pressure but found the right continuation after Dubov erred decisively on the 32nd move. Vidit won five moves later.
Magnus Carlsen and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the other two joint overnight leaders with Vidit, drew to reach two points.
R. Praggnanandhaa (1), however, suffered his first loss after running into defending champion Jorden van Foreest.
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In fact, Praggnanandhaa was lucky to test negative for Covid after his coach, R. B. Ramesh tested positive.
Once the symptoms appeared, the organisers immediately shifted Ramesh to a separate room, got him tested and kept him in isolation. As Ramesh tweeted, “Pragg is safe. Proud of you Pragg for handling all this maturely.”
Ramesh also tweeted, “Pragg is being tested on a daily basis and only in case of a negative result, he is playing that round. All precautions are being taken. He is wearing his mask throughout the game.”
Meanwhile in the Challengers section, top seed Arjun Erigaisi defeated Daniel Dardha in 42 moves to share the lead at 2.5 points with overnight leader Volodar Murzin (Russia) and Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Czech Republic). Surya Shekhar Ganguly reached two points after local Max Warmerdam proved equal in 38 moves.
Third-round results (Indians unless stated):
Masters: Daniil Dubov (Rus, 1) lost to Vidit Gujrathi (2.5); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 2) bt R. Praggnanandhaa (1); Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 2) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 2); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 0.5) lost to Richard Rapport (Hun, 2); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 1.5) drew with Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 1.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 1.5) drew with Sam Shankland (USA. 1); Anish Giri (1) drew with Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 1.5).
Challengers: Arjun Erigiasi (2.5) bt Daniel Dardha (Bel, 0.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2) drew with Max Warmerdam (Ned, 1).
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