Former World Champion Viswanathan Anand survived a few nervy moments against Malaysia’s Li Tian Yeoh, but recovered well during his game to book his place in the second round of the Chess World Cup in Tbilisi on Monday.
The 47-year-old secured the half-a-point he needed after getting off to a winning start earlier in the day. Playing with white pieces of a Caro-Kann defence, Anand ran into trouble early on but his opponent was equally culpable of making some weak moves as the game was drawn in 71 moves.
There were two big upsets scored by Indians during the day as SP Sethuraman progressed to round two with a win against former champion Ruslan Ponmariov.
Karthikeyan Murali stunned Spain Francisco Vallejo to take their match into a tie-breaker. Among other Indians, Vidit Gujrathi also secured a win while B Adhiban forced his game into a tie-breaker against Vietnam Ngoc Truong Son. Meanwhile, Deep Sengupta was knocked out by Wang Ho from China.
Harikrishna recovers
Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna recovered quickly from the loss in the opening game against Cuban Yuri Gonzalez Vidal to win the second game and take the first round contest into the tie-breaker, PTI reported.
The World No 20 Indian, playing with white pieces in this round, was wary of his opponent’s attacking prowess and started off with careful calculated moves. However, the Cuban was looking to carry on his winning streak and tried to put Harikrishna on the back foot from the initial stages of the game.
The positions remained equal till the 20th move, but the Indian broke away after a miscalculated move by Vidal and kept mounting the pressure till there was no way out for his opponent.
The game was long and gruelling and lasted a total of 41 moves for Harikrishna to take a full point from it and lead it to the tie-breaker. The 31-year-old will now takes on Vidal in the tie-breaker round and continue his quest for a spot at the Candidates’ Tournament.
If Harikrishna emerges victorious in the tie breaker, he will face compatriot Sethuraman.
