In keeping with their reputation, the teen trio of D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin eased into the third round of the FIDE World Cup in Baku on a day when the Indian women had a highly fruitful outing.
K. Humpy, D. Harika, R. Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh advanced on Thursday but Mary Ann Gomes impressed again by making light of a rating difference of over 200 points to hold Kateryna Lagno. Tie-break games will decide the fate of Mary on Friday.
Karthik Venkataraman also punched way above his weight to hold second seed Hikaru Nakamura for the second time.
But the talking point was Gukesh’s second victory, over local Misratdin Iskandrov, that took him past his hero Viswanathan Anand in live rankings to World No. 9.
Gukesh now faces teammate S.L. Narayanan whose victorious game against Ukraine’s Yuriy Kuzubov was the day’s longest featuring an Indian.
The results: Round 2: Game 2: Open: S. L. Narayanan (2656, 1.5) bt Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 2628, 0.5); Misratdin Iskandrov (Aze, 2551, 0) lost to D. Gukesh (2744, 2); Peter Svidler (FIDE, 2688, 1.5) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (2605, 0.5); Daniil Dubov (FIDE, 2716, 1.5) drew with B. Adhiban (2587, 0.5); Dimitrios Mastrovasilis (Gre, 2587, 1) drew with Vidit Gujrathi (2719, 1); Alex Bachmann (Par, 2604, 0) lost to Nihal Sarin (2688, 2); Arjun Erigaisi (2710, 1) drew with Sergie Azarov (FIDE, 2589, 1); R. Praggnanandhaa (2690, 1.5) drew with Maxime Lagarde (Fra, 2599, 0.5); Karthik Venkataraman (2565, 1) drew with Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2789, 1).
Women: Pauline Gulchard (Fra, 2384, 0.5) drew with R. Vaishali (2431, 1.5); Kateryna Lagno (FIDE, 2552, 1) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (2326, 1); N. Priyanka (2293, 0.5) drew with K. Humpy (2553, 1.5); D. Harika (2500, 2) bt Michalina Rudzinska (Pol, 2257, 0); Divya Deshmukh (2400, 1.5) bt Hoang Thanh Trang (Hun, 2402, 0.5).
