Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat Alexey Sarana of Serbia to register his third straight victory and take his tally to a commendable 8.5 points after the end of the 12th and penultimate round of Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands on Saturday.
On a day when D Gukesh looked poised to retain his sole lead on nine points as he was close to winning against Dutchman Jorden van Foreest, Arjun Erigaisi ended the hopes of Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan by scoring a fine victory with white pieces.
If Gukesh wins, he will move to nine points and will stay ahead of Praggnanandhaa while Abdusattorov slipped to third spot on 7.5 points.
Praggnanandhaa was involved in another Queen's gambit declined opening. Only this time, he was playing with white pieces.
It was quite a contrast from his previous round game against Caruana as Sarana went for an early advance of king side pawns and then castled on the queen side. It was time to launch an attack against the black king and Praggnanandhaa did not disappoint.
In tactical complications, Praggnanandhaa was at his best as he sacrificed a piece to rip-apart the black's king position and what followed thereafter was a pleasure to watch. The game ended through a queen sacrifice resulting in force checkmate.
Arjun Erigaisi finally proved his mettle against Abdusattorov whose ambitions of the top place ended. It was a Nimzo Indian wherein Erigaisi had white pieces and his choice of Capablanca variation gave little chances for Abdusattorov to disturb the balance.
In the early middle game, Abdusattorov went for unwarranted complications and ended up blundering on the kingside. Erigaisi won a pawn first and later won two bishops for a rook. With precise calculations, he wrapped up the issue in 46 moves.
Results round 12 Masters: Arjun Erigaisi (Ind, 4.5) beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 7.5); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 4.5) playing D Gukesh (Ind, 8); Wei Yi (Chn, 6.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 6.5); Leon Luke Mendonca (Ind, 4) playing Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 5.5); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 8.5) beat Alexey Sarana (Srb, 5.5); P Harikrishna (Ind, 6) drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger, 5); Max Warmerdam (Ned, 3.5) lost to Vladimir Fedoseev (Slo, 7).
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