Tata Steel Masters: Adhiban escapes to victory, Hari draws

B. Adhiban escaped the grasp of Radoslaw Wojtaszek and played a perfectly to the make Polish Grandmaster pay the price in 66 moves in the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here on Saturday.

Adhiban erred twice in succession while approaching the time-control of 40 moves to stare at defeat.

From a seemingly lost position, B. Adhiban escaped the grasp of Radoslaw Wojtaszek and played a perfectly to the make Polish Grandmaster pay the price in 66 moves in the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here on Saturday.

On a day when World champion Magnus Carlsen had Anish Giri at his mercy but shockingly misplayed the winning position and the game eventually ended as a stalemate in 123 moves, Wesley So stayed at the top with five points.

After P. Hari Krishna played with black pieces and held Dmitry Andreikin in 43 moves, Adhiban erred twice in succession while approaching the time-control of 40 moves to stare at defeat.

Luckily for him, Wojtaszek returned the favour by missing out on the precise continuation and by the 46th move, a draw looked on cards.

But soon, Wojtaszek blundered a knight to give Adhiban a closer look at an unexpected victory. Adhiban did not let the opportunity slip and posted his second victory in this elite field.

The results:

Seventh round: Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Pol, 3) lost to B. Adhiban (3.5); Dmitry Andreikin (Rus, 3.5) drew with P. Hari Krishna (3.5); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 4.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 4); Wesley So (US, 5) drew with Pavel Eljanov (Ukr, 4.5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4) bt Levon Aronian (Arm, 3.5); Wei Yi (Chn, 4.5) bt Loek van Wely (Ned, 1); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Rus, 2.5) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 2).