Vidit Gujrathi proved equal to World champion Ding Liren to make a confident start to his campaign in the elite Tata Steel Masters chess by splitting points at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday.
The 38-move draw with white pieces came on a day when two other drawn results involved Indians. R. Praggnanandhaa drew with former World junior champion Parham Maghsoodloo in 44 moves, and D. Gukesh needed 37 moves to split the point with Uzbek Nordik Abdusattorov.
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The other four boards provided decisive results, with Ian Nepomniachtchi, Alireza Firouzja, Anish Giri and Wei Yi emerging victorious to share the lead.
In the Challengers section, again with three Indians in the hunt, Goa-boy Leon Mendonca defeated rising Dutch girl Eline Roebers to be among the leaders, including USA’s Hans Moke Niemann, Spain’s Jaime Santos Latasa and UAE’s Saleh Salem.
D. Harika drew with higher-rated French Marc Andria Maurizzi, and Divya Deshmukh did the same with Belgium’s Stefan Beukema.
The results (first round):
Masters: Vidit Gujrathi drew with Ding Liren (Chn); R. Praggnanandhaa drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri); D. Gukesh drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Ju Wenjun (Chn) lost to Anish Giri (Ned); Jorden van Foreest (Ned) lost to Alireza Firouzja (Fra); Max Warmerdam (Ned) lost to Ian Nepomniachtchi (FIDE); Alexander Donchenko (Ger) lost to Wei Yi (Chn).
Challengers: Eline Roebers (Ned) lost to Leon Mendonca;Marc Andria Maurizzi (Ned) drew with D. Harika; Divya Deshmukh drew with Stefan Beukema (Bel); Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur) lost to Latasa Santos (Esp); Hans Moke Niemann (USA) bt Liam Vrolijk (Ned); Saleh Salem (UAE) bt Anton Korobov (Uzb); Daniel Dardha (Bel) drew with Erwin L’Ámi (Ned).
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