Arjun Erigaisi will start as the favourite against veteran Hungarian Peter Leko, while R Praggnanandhaa faces the inventive Daniil Dubov.
Harikrishna continued his success story with the seasoned Grandmaster, who famously assisted Gukesh in the World Championship title match, showcasing his skills as a brilliant attacker.
India's Narayanan, Diptayan, Aronyak advance to second round
The experienced Surya Shekhar Ganguly, GM Raunak Sadhwani and GM Karthik Venkatraman scored comfortable victories while M Pranesh played out a draw to advance to the second round, while IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated GM Mateusz Bartel of Poland to force a tie-breaker, in the FIDE World Cup 2025 in Panaji on Sunday.
World champion Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Georg Meier of Germany for the second time in the Grenke Chess classic now underway in Baden-Baden.
World champion Viswanathan Anand played out his third draw on the trot, forced to sign peace with lowest-ranked Georg Meier of Germany in the third round of the Grenke Chess Classic
World champion Viswanathan Anand slipped to joint third after being held to a draw by second seed Fabiano Caruana of Italy in the second round of the Grenke Chess Classic in Baden-Baden, Germany.
India 'B' blanked Estonia 4-0 in the second round of the Open section in the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai, on Saturday while the second-seeded India 'A' team defeated Moldova 3.5-0.5 to make it two wins from as many matches.
Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vladislav Artemiev of Russia in the eighth and penultimate round, ending the Indian challenge in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament on Sunday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
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