E-Paper
Praggnanandhaa survives with draw on error-prone day
In a tense Chess World Cup match, R Praggnanandhaa secured a draw against GM Daniil Dubov despite multiple blunders, as five Indian players remain active.
Mumbai: Thirteen moves across the chess board had gone by without much incident. Then R Praggnanandhaa, playing with white pieces, unexpectedly pushed a pawn forward along the d file when perhaps moving the white bishop up the board from b3 to d5 was a better move.
It put the world No.7 on the backfoot against Russian GM Daniil Dubov in the first game of their fourth round match at the Chess World Cup in Goa on Tuesday.
But on a day when both players struggled under time pressure, the fatigue of a long tournament that had reached its half-way point started to kick-in, Dubov was unable to capitalise. And after making the 41st move, Praggnanandhaa offered a draw, which the Russian accepted.
Five Indians are still active at the Chess World Cup from the 24 that had started the knockout competition. All five managed to eke out draws in their respective classical matches on Tuesday, but Praggnanandhaa, the runner-up from the last World Cup in 2023, could easily have ended up on the losing side here.
There was another curious choice in the 18th move and once again on the 25th. But he made a blunder on the 29th move when he moved his castle when moving the bishop diagonally was the better option, as suggested by the computer. Finally, on the 39th move, with Praggnanandhaa facing a serious time crunch with less than a minute left on the clock, he made another error.
But through all the errors, Dubov failed to seize the winning advantage. And as restlessly as Praggnanandhaa sat, he somehow snatched an unlikely draw from a near-certain defeat.
While the India No.2 had a difficult day, India No.1 and world No.6 Arjun Erigaisi was more efficient, playing out a quick draw.
Facing the 2004 World Championship runner-up Peter Leko, Erigaisi used the white pieces in a match that lasted 20 moves before both players agreed to call it a draw.
“It was a very interesting game,” Leko said after the match. “Arjun came up with a big surprise. But in this game, I knew the lines but I had not analysed it deeply. So being too low on the clock, I decided to draw by repetition.”
Veteran Harikrishna Pentala’s match went on for a bit longer. Playing with black pieces, Harikrishna, who was a part of the Indian team that won gold at the Chess Olympiad last year, agreed to a draw against Swedish GM Nils Grandelius after 32 moves.
Karthik Venkataraman’s match against Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem lasted 36 moves before both players split points.
But in the second-longest match of the day, junior world champion Pranav V, with white pieces, was held to a draw by Uzbekistan’s Nordibek Yakubboev.
Of the 16 matches that took place on Tuesday, only two had results.
Mexico’s Jose Eduardo Martinez Alcantara used the black pieces to pull-off a 39-move win over Serbia’s Sarana Alexey.
Meanwhile, two-time World Cup winner Levon Aronian won his match against Poland’s Radoslaw Wojtaszek in 37 moves.
