Indian cavalry holds ground in Prague Masters: Praggnanandhaa draws again, Chithambaram shines

Chithambaram scores his first victory with black pieces after squeezing himself out of the danger zone in his first-round game against Czech Grandmaster Nguyen

Prague (Czech Republic): Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out a second straight draw against Turkey’s Gurel Ediz while Aravindh Chithambaram crashed through the defences of Germany’s Vincent Keymer in the second round of the Prague Masters here.

Chithambaram, who has been knocking hard on the doors of elite circles, scored his first victory with black pieces after squeezing himself out of the danger zone in his first-round game against Czech Grandmaster Nguyen Thai Dai Van.

The Indian was involved in the sole decisive game of the day in the 10-player round-robin format, while the other matches ended in draws.

Dai Van drew his second game on the trot with Sam Shankland of the United States, top seeded Wei Yi from China opened his account after splitting the point with Dutchman Anish Giri, and Quang of Vietnam achieved the same result against Navara David from Czech Republic.

With seven rounds to go, Chithambaram joined Shankland in the lead on 1.5 points out of two games. They are followed by Giri, Le, Dai Van, David, Keymer and Praggnanandhaa. Ediz and Wei Yi share the last spot on a half point apiece from their two games.

On a day when world champion Boris Spassky breathed his last, Chithambaram’s victory had traits of the Russian’s style of play to go for the kill at the first opportunity and not let it slip.