SOCHI (Russia): India No.3 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi and his opponent Vasif Durarbayli of Azerbaijan played out a draw in the first game of the two-game mini match in the fifth round of the FIDE chess World Cup on Sunday.
Grandmaster Gujrathi, ranked 22 in the world, and enjoying a higher FIDE rating than his rival, settled for a draw in 56 moves in a Slav variation game which stretched for over four hours.
He is the only Indian in the fray in the men's section after Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and P Harikrishna bowed out with defeats to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France) and M Amin Tabatabaei (Iran) respectively in the fourth round.
Gujrathi and Durarbayli will face off in the second game on Monday and further in a tie-break (rapid followed by Blitz) on Tuesday if things are equal after the two classical games.
Tournament favourite and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway was held to a draw in game one by Russia's Andrey Espineko. All the other games in round five except for the one in which Haik M Matrirsoyan beat Tabatabeai ended in a stalemate.
