Vidit Gujrathi bounced back from the seventh-round defeat to beat Sweden’s Nils Grandelius in 34 moves and retained his tied-third spot in the Masters section after eight rounds of the Tata Steel chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Sunday.
Vidit raised his tally to five points, same as Anish Giri, to stay half point behind leaders Magnus Carlsen and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. The leaders clash on Tuesday when the action resumes after a day’s rest.
Mamedyarov defeated R. Praggnanandhaa in 46 moves after Carlsen drew with Sam Shankland in 35 moves.
The results (eighth round, Indians unless stated):
Masters: Vidit Gujrathi (5) bt Nils Grandelius (Swe, 2); Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze, 5.5) bt R. Praggnanandhaa (2.5); Sam Shankland (USA, 3.5) drew with Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 5.5); Andrey Esipenko (Rus, 4) lost to Anish Giri (Ned, 5); Sergey Karjakin (Rus, 4) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun, 4.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4) drew with Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 4); Daniil Dubov (Rus, 3) drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Pol, 3.5).
Challengers (involving Indians): Arjun Erigaisi (7) bt Jonas Buhl Bjerre (Den, 4.5); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4) lost to Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 5.5).