Team Herald
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VAGATOR: Grandmasters Raunak Sadhwani and S L Narayanan, India’s two best hopes, were held to draws by Daniel Barrish of South Africa and Steven Salas Rojas of Peru in the first game of the opening round of World Chess Cup, here, on Saturday.
While most of the games in the 156 players contest selected for the first round went according to rankings, there were a few surprises that is typical of the knockout format of the World Cup.
Four players, in fact, did not turn up to play and their opponents got walk overs. However those who ended up getting a free point were all higher ranked players and this would give them a free passage in to the next round of this USD 2 million prize money tournament that in addition has three places reserved for the next candidates tournament.
The Indian elite, comprising World Champion D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, P Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi and Nihal Sarin, have all received direct entry into the second round, which will feature 128 players.
Each round will follow a knockout format, with two classical games, and in case of a tie, games of shorter duration will decide the winner.
In another upset of the day, India’s Leon Luke Mendonca was also held to a draw, while Diptayan Ghosh also just proved equal to his opponent.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who has been in the World cup before, played a fine game to beat Ahmadzada Ahmad of Azerbaijan, while Ritvik Raja did well to hold 2024 World junior champion Nogerbek Kazybek of Kazakhstan to a draw.
With this being only the first game of the opening round, the action will resume on Sunday. Those in the lead will look to seal their passage to the next round, while those who drew will aim to take the upper hand. For players starting with a loss, the road ahead appears difficult, as the day did not witness any major upsets.
