After 14 players crashed out in the first two rounds of the FIDE World Cup, 10 Indian players are now in action in Round 3 and are competing in Game 1 of Round 3 in Goa today. The Indian contingent still in contention includes D. Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Pentala Harikrishna, Diptayan Ghosh, Karthik Venkataraman, Vidit Gujrathi, Pranav V, Pranesh M, R. Praggnanandhaa, SL Narayanan.
Harikrishna produced a big result, defeating Belgian Grand Master Daniel Dardha in just two and a half hours with the white pieces, meanwhile, Arjun Erigaisi crushed Shamsiddin Vokhidov with brilliant opening preparation and a commanding approach to take a 1-0 lead in their matches.
Both now need only a draw with black tomorrow to qualify for Round 4, a dominant performance from the Indian stars.
Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi who had secured their places in round 3 after winning tiebreaks matches yesterday, played it safe today and settled for a solid draw, sharing the points with their opponents. The top seed, D. Gukesh, also ended his game against Frederik Svane in a draw.
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