Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa, Harikrishna head to tie-break in 4th round of Chess World Cup

Panjim (Goa), Nov 12 (PTI) Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi kept himself in contention on Wednesday and will fight in the tie-break along side R Praggnanandhaa and P Harikrishna in the fourth round of the Chess World Cup here.

In what turned out to be another calm day in the knockout tournament, the two overnight winners Levon Aronian of the United States and Joss Martinez Alcantara of Mexico made it to the fifth round, or pre-quarterfinals, packing off Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland and Alexey Sarana of Slovenia respectively by drawing their games.

Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev and Vietnam's Le Quang Liem ended the spirited campaign of V Pranav and V Karthik to let only three Indians remain in the fray for the three coveted spots reserved for the Candidates from the World Cup.

For Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa it was an easy day, but Harikrishna had to negotiate some difficulties before he could reach the tie-break stage.

In-form Aronian just needed a draw and he achieved it without much ado against Radoslav Wojtaszek, who played white.

Karthik and Pranav wanted to create complications that did not feel right against Liem Le Quang of Vietnam and Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan respectively.

Complete results (Round 4, game 2) (Indians unless specified): Frederik Svane (Ger) drew with Shant Sargysyan (Arm) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Peter Leko (Hun) drew with Arjun Erigaisi 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; R Praggnanandhaa drew with Daniil Dubov (Fid) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Matthias Bluebaum (Ger) lost to Alexander Domchenko (Ger) - 0.5-1.5; V Pranav lost to Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb) 0.5-1.5; Andrey Esipenko (Fid) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Wei Yi (Chn) drew with Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Alexey Sarana (Fid) lost to Jose Eduardo Martinez Alacantra (Mex) 0.5-1.5; Nils Grandelius (Swe) drew with P Harikrishna 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Samuel Sevian (USA) drew with Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Aleksy Grebnev (Fid) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Awonder Liang (USA) drew with Gabriel Sargissian (Arm) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Le Quang Liem (Vie) beat V Karthik 1.5-0.5; Sam Shankland (USA) drew with Richard Rapport (Hun) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak; Levon Aronian (USA) beat Radoslav Wojtaszek (Pol) 1.5-0.5; Yu Yangyi (Chn) drew with Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) 1-1 - goes to tiebreak. PTI Cor AM AM AM