A day after punching way above their weight, Vidit Gujrathi and R. Praggnanandhaa hit the canvas a few times in the New in Chess Classic rapid online chess on Sunday.
After 10 rounds, Vidit (5 points) was 10th while Praggnanandhaa (4.5) was sharing the 11th spot. Favourite Magnus Carlsen led with seven points, half a point ahead of Firouzja Alireza and Hikaru Nakamura.
On Sunday, Vidit stretched his unbeaten run to eight rounds when he drew with Alireza, beat Jan-Krzysztof Duda and missed a win late in the game against a determined Praggnanandhaa. However, in the last two rounds of the day, Vidit lost to Wesley So and Shakhiryar Mamedyarov.
Pragnanandhaa could not add to his overnight tally, of three points, after losing to Le Quang Liem and Leinier Dominguez Perez. He matched wits with Vidit for over 50 moves and managed to survive a third straight defeat after Vidit missed a possible win. .
The gritty teenager went on to upset 2019 World Cup winner Teimour Radjabov and looked good to beat Aryan Tari until 41 moves. However, two successive blunders from Praggnanandha turned the tide in Tari’s favour.
