Gukesh to clash with Alireza on what promises to be a photo finish
Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana under Classical but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.
India went down to Rest of the World 1.5-2.5 in the second round of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup. Earlier in the opening round, India split points with USA with Humpy posting a win over Anna Zatonkish while the legendary Anand drew with the highly-rated Hikaru Nakamura.
Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control.
Caruana became the sole leader and also got back to number two in live world rankings.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa lost to World Champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tie-breaker after the two played out a draw under normal time control in the second round.
Indian players experienced mixed fortunes in the second round of the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament here with two each in the men's and women's sections registering victories.
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
The Indian team includes country's number two Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy. B Adhiban and D Harika are the the reserves members. The field for the event includes six former world champions, plus 12 others who have been Candidates to the throne at some point.
While Vaishali got the better of Ukraine's Inna Gopanenko in round eight, Rout defeated Russia's Baira Kovanova.
Indian GM D Gukesh overwhelmed Dutch player Max Warmerdam for his third victory on the trot and elevated himself to a joint lead after the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands on Sunday.
The triumph entitles Gukesh a clash against reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the last quarter of the year.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
Gukesh faced the in-vogue Italian opening as black against Caruana and the players battled it out in the main variation.
Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of Hans Moke Niemann of the United States to join the leaders' pack on 4.5 points.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
Seventh-round loss gave me energy, motivation to aim for title: Gukesh
With five points in his kitty from eight games, D Gukesh jointly leads the standings with Anish Giri of Holland.
With seven rounds still to come in the first super tournament of the year, Anish Guru maintained his sole lead on 4.5 points out of a possible six and he is now trailed by Iranian turned Frenchman Firouza Alireza who is on 4 points.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand will lead India's charge at the online Nations Cup beginning on Tuesday, where some of the world's best players will face off amid the coronavirus pandemic which has thrown the sporting calendars out of gear. The six-team event, touted to the richest online team tournament, features all the big names in the game with World champion Magnus Carlsen being the only big gun missing from the line-up.
Sankalp Gupta becomes India's 71st GM.
Anand moved to joint sixth spot with 2.5 points on a day that saw Firouzja Alireza scoring a sensational victory over super-solid Anish Giri of Holland.
Anand has been trying to play very complicated positions and the sixth round was no different.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
At 12 years, seven months and 17 days, Dommaraju Gukesh is the second youngest Grandmaster of all time.
'It was a big relief to get it out of the way. Now he can concentrate on future progress.'
Nihal Sarin closes in on final Grandmaster norm
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Saturday
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