Indian Grandmaster Vidit Santosh Gujrathi continues to lead with three points from a draw against Andrey Esipenko of Russia in the fourth round of the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament here.
Meanwhile, Grandmaster R Pragyanandana made a comeback after a third round loss and secured his first win of the tournament, beating Nils Grandelius of Sweden late on Tuesday to reach 2 points.
Pragnananda won a good positional game against Grandelius in the Grünfeld defence. After an instructive exchange of his dark-squared bishop for a knight in a closed position, the Indian seamlessly executes a classical plan of playing against the opponent’s so-called bad bishop and a rook endgame in a well-rounded manner. Won a deserved victory.
Gujrathi and Esipenko tested a popular line from the Italian opening in which the Russian GM consistently held ground with Black. Esipenko also emerged as a pawn, but White had enough retaliation. Probably satisfied with half a point, Esipenko opted not to ask further questions and opted for a draw.
Azerbaijan GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also registered his first win, outfoxing Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda in endgame complications. All other games were draws.
Magnus Carlsen and Jordan van Forest played a thrilling game in which the world champions missed their chance to catch up with the leader. The Dutchman did not shy away from complications in a stone wall position as he boldly sacrificed one pawn and later the other for an active play on the kingside. A draw was agreed on the 54th move.
Indian GM Arjun Arigasi is on top after a fourth round win over Rowen Vogel in the simultaneous Challengers event. He is followed by two players on three points, while another Indian Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly has 2.5 points when he drew Daniel Dardha in his round four match.
Standings after Round 4: Masters: 1. Vidit Gujrati – 3 marks; 2-6. Magnus Calson, Richard Rapport, Andrey Esipenko, Jordan Van Forrest and Shakhriyar Mamedyrov – 2.5; 7-9. Fabiano Caruana, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Pragnanda R. – 2; 10-13. Sam Shankland, Sergey Karjakin, Daniil Dubov, Anish Giri, – 1.5; Nils Grandelius – 0.5.
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