The defending champion GM Aravindh Chithamabaram registered his first win of the tournament in round 2 of the Prague Chess Festival in Czechia on Thursday.
Arvaindh survived an early scare to defeat American Grandmaster Hans Niemann with the black pieces after he blundered his Knight in the 31st move.
After losing his first game, this win is a crucial result for him, who is now joint 4th with 1 point from 2 games and keeps himself in the race for title defence.
Meanwhile, the other Indian in contention, the reigning world Champion Gukesh dommaraju played yet another draw in his round-2 game against Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.
Both players evened each other out with the high accuracy in the Queen’s Gambit declined to play out a draw after just 30 moves with three-fold repetition.
In the third round on Friday, Gukesh will take on Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands, while Aravindh is up against Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo.
In the Challengers section, India’s Divya Deshmukh and experienced Surya Sekhar Ganguly played out a draw in their respective second round games.
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