Former world champion Viswanathan Anand, Grandmasters Vidit Gujarathi and SP Sethuraman bounced back with white pieces to register convincing wins in the third round of the Isle of Man International Chess Tournament and jump to joint second spot with 2.5 points.
Anand needed just 42 moves to beat Nikolas Lubbe, Gujarathi needed two more moves to force Michael Brown into a surrender while Sethuraman defeated Andrew Ledger in the third round.
While the three made a comeback of sorts after a draw in the second round, overnight joint leader D Harika struggled to come up with a formidable game plan against Swedish GM Nils Grandelius and had to settle for a draw with white pieces.
“The game was really complicated from the initial stages and in the middle game too. Towards the end of the game, the positions remained unclear which led us to enter into a clearly equal variation ultimately leading to a draw,” Harika said.
Another overnight joint leader Swapnil Dhopade, playing black, carved out a draw against Granda Zuniga Julio E of Peru to take his points tally to 2.5