Grandmaster Nihal Sarin staged a spirited comeback to hold German GM Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu to a draw while top seed Pentala Harikrishna also had to be careful to hold Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo to a draw in the second round of TePe Sigeman & Co chess tournament underway here.
Fourteen-year-old Nihal Sarin played the Sicilian Sveshnikov for the first time in his career with the black pieces and Nisipeanu saw an opportunity to win a pawn on the 28th move. However the wily teenager had cleverly set a trap wherein he ended up with a pawn less than his opponent, but with excellent chances to draw. Perfect defense thereon saw Nihal get away with a draw.
In the first round, Nihal had missed a winning position against Ivan Saric of Croatia and had also drawn. Following the second draw in as many rounds, the Kerala based has now crossed 2600 ELO points in live ratings a primary task when he set out to play one of the strongest tournament in his short career thus far.
He would need to maintain his form over the course of the tournament to ensure that he officially achieves the mark in the next FIDE rating list.
Asked about his play, Nihal said, "I was a bit uncertain about the nuances of the opening and got into pressure right from the beginning."
Fresh from a brilliant performance in Shenzhen Masters a week ago, GM Pentala Harikrishna has not quite continued from where he left off. He had a miniscule amount of pressure out of the opening with the white pieces against GM Parham Maghsoodloo, but ended up over pressing. Maghsoodloo was the one who was in the driver's seat in the endgame but Harikrishna managed to play accurately and hold the fort.
Swedish GM Tiger Hillarp Persson turned out to be the only winner in the second round as he managed to get the better of Saric. Meanwhile, the top Swedish GM Nils Grandelius played out an interesting but fairly quick draw against English GM Gawain Jones.
The 7 round Category 17 event takes place from May 3-10. GM Tiger Hillarp Persson of Swedeb and GM Gawain Jones of England have sprinted into the early lead with 1.5/2 while Nihal and Harikrishna trail at 1.0/2.
Harikrishna faces GM Nils Grandelius in round 3 with the black pieces and Nihal will play against Jones where the former will play white.
Results round 2: P. Harikrishna (Ind, 1) drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 0.5); Gawain Jones (Eng, 1.5) drew with Nils Grandelius (Swe, 1); Liviu-Dieter Nisipeanu (Ger, 1) drew with Nihal Sarin (Ind, 1); Tiger Hillarp-Persson (Swe, 1.5) beat I. Saric (Cro, 0.5).
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