Chess World Cup 2023: Humpy, Dronavalli Enter Round of 8; Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh Among Five Indians in Men's Pre-quarters

As many as seven Indians are still fighting for the title in the ongoing Chess World Cup 2023 being held in Baku (Azarbaijan).

In the men’s category, Gukesh D, Vidit Gujrathi, Nihal Sarin, Erigaisi Arjun and Praggnanandhaa R have advanced to the round-of-16.

In the women’s event, Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika have qualified for the round-of-8.

Gukesh D, who is also Vishwanathan Anand’s protege, defeated Grandmaster, S L Narayanan 1.5-0.5 to enter the next round. On the other hand, Vidit managed to get the better of German Grandmaster Matthias Blübaum in a tough contest which ended  5-4.

Grandmaster Sarin defeated Romanian Bogdan-Daniel Deac 2.5-1.5 and Erigaisi from Telangana beat Russia’s Vladimir Fedoseev 1.5-0.5.

Praggnanandhaa, who caught the global attention after a famous win over world champion Magnus Carlsen, secured a victory over Czech Republic’s David Navara. He will now face second seed H Nakamura in the last-16.

The third round of the Women’s division also came to a close as out of the five Indians that were competing, three were eliminated.

Vaishali Rameshbabu, the elder sibling of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, lost to Ukranian Muzychuk Mariya 0-2.

Kolkata’s Mary Ann Gomes also suffered a 0-2 defeat at the hands of Bulgarian Nurgyul Salimova.

Former world rapid chess champion Humpy got the better of Olga Badelka 1.5-0.5 to progress ahead after 54 moves.

Harika Dronavalli had to dig deep to eliminate Lela Javakhishvili and will next face Eline Roebers.

Divya Deshmukh lost to Aleksandra Goryachkina 0.5-1.5.

Tuesday is a rest day.

In the open championship, Carlsen will take on German Keymer Vincent.

Indians in Action at the Chess World Cup 2023

Men’s Round of 16

• Gukesh D will take on Eispenko Andrey.
• V Gujrathi will be up against Frenchman Etienne Bacrot.
• Nihal Sarin will be facing the fourth-seeded, Ian Nepomniachtchi.
• Arjun Erigaisi will take on Uzbekistan’s J Sindarov.
• R Praggnanandhaa will be up against the second seed, H Nakamura.

Women’s Round of 8

• Koneru Humpy takes on Georgian Bella Khotenashvili.
• Harika Dronavalli takes on the Dutch, Eline Roebers.