Chess: Praggnanandhaa beats Eljanov, Anand held
World’s third youngest Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat highly regarded Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine but five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Rasmus Svane in the third round of Isle of Man International chess tournament here on Tuesday.
Praggnanandhaa is just 13 years old but the boy is already going places and this was his second win against a 2700 Grandmaster after beating English David Howell in the same tournament last year.
Eljanov was seen glued to his chair for a good part of the game while the young Indian was seeking energy out of a banana during the course of this 64-moves encounter. The Sicilian Classical met with one of the topical variation where the young Indian played white and unleashing his dangerous tactics in the middle game, Praggnanandhaa was able to win a rook for knight when the dust subsided.
Eljanov fought on but the teenager was spot on in finding the technical nuances and brought home full points without much ado. But experienced Anand was held to his second draw in as many games after the scare he suffered in the opener against another teenager Raunak Sadhwani. Svane did not have to do much with white pieces out of a queen pawn opening. It was a level position in the middle game where the players decided to repeat and split the point in mere 24 moves.
On the brighter side from Indian perspective, former World Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta played out a draw with former World Champion contender Boris Gelfand of Israel. Gupta was in fact pressing for a victory and Gelfand walked out with a pretty piece sacrifice in the endgame. With six rounds still to come in the 133000 pounds sterling tournament, as many as six players maintained a clean slate.
As many as 20-players trail the leaders a half point behind, including five Indians — Vidit Gujrathi, Vaibhav Suri, Praggnanandhaa, B Adhiban and Gupta. Anand is currently in the joint 26th position but it’s clear that things can only get better for the Indian heavyweight in the rounds to come.