National champion and Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly registered a second straight victory over United States champion Hikaru Nakamura to advance at the World Chess Cup in Khanty-Mansiysky, Russia on Monday.
Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran also advanced to the second round after outclassing Grandmaster Alexei Iljushin of Russia in the return game but former World Junior champion P Harikrishna was forced in to a tiebreaker by Chinese Yu Shaoteng after the latter held the higher rated Indian for a second consecutive draw.
There were no big upsets at the top of the table as seeded players like Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Etienne Bacrot of France, Boris Gelfand of Israel and Alexei Shirov of Spain advanced without much ado.
The biggest casualties were Andrei Volokitin of Ukraine and Nakamura who were shown the exit door by Cao Sang of Hungary and Ganguly respectively.
Ganguly, playing with black pieces, was at his best against Nakamura. He had started off in the first game with a victory and was in no mood to spoil the hard work.
Nakamura went for a side line in the Italian game but got nothing as Ganguly maintained the balance coming into the middle game. The American erred in the middle game and Ganguly's Bishop spat fire on the king giving little chance.
Nakamura found temporary solace in the queen exchange and kept on trying for an elusive victory before he was finally pushed to the wall by the Indian. In the endgame, Ganguly had two connected passed pawns and Nakamura had no chances. The game lasted 52 moves.
Sasikiran was no less impressive in his crushing victory over Iljushin. Playing the white side of a Dutch Defence, Sasikiran got a slightly better position in the middle game and nurtured it well to get a superior endgame. Iljushin tried some tricks in the middle of the board but Sasikiran's advanced King and better placed pieces were simply too hard to handle. The Indian romped home in 50 moves.
Having drawn the first game with white pieces on Sunday, Harikrishna came out with a cautious approach and did not try much with black pieces in the second game. The Indian will now have to play the tiebreak games against Shaoteng on Wednesday which will include two games of 25 minutes each with a 10 seconds addition.
If the tie persists, two blitz games will be played with five minutes to each player with a 10 second increment after every move. If the deadlock continues, the sudden death game will be played in which white will get six minutes against black's five but in case of a draw player with black will proceed to the next round.
The game was, in fact, quite short and ended quickly.
Shaoteng went for the Italian opening and Harikrishna exchanged a couple of minor pieces in quick time to get a balanced middle game on board. Peace was signed in just 15 moves.
Grandmaster Etienne Bacrot of France made it to the second round easily defeating Stanley Chumfwa of Zambia in the second game too. The Frenchman won both his games in this one-sided contest to make his way to the next round.
Top pairings (Round 1, Game 2:)
Aleksander Sibriaev (Rus) drew with Vassily Ivanchuk (Ukr) 0.5-1.5; Etienne Bacrot (Fra) beat Stanley Chumfwa (Zam) 2-0; Frhat Ali (Egy) lost to Levon Aronian (Arm) 0-2; Alexander Grischuk (Rus) beat Gaston Needleman (Arg) 2-0; Watu Kobese (Rsa) lost to Boris Gelfand (Isr) 0-2; Alexei Shirov (Esp) beat Kiril Kuderinov (Kaz) 1.5-0.5; Teimour Radjabov (Aze) beat Diego Flores (Arg) 2-0; Sergei Tiviakov (Ned) beat Slim Belkhodja (Tun) 2-0; Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) drew with Ivan Sokolov (Ned) 0.5-1.5; Alexey Dreev beat Pascal Charbonneau (Can) 2-0; Zhao Yun (Chn) drew with Gata Kamsky (Usa) 0.5-1.5; Viktor Bologan (Mda) beat Carlos Matamoros (Ecu) 2-0; Aleksei Pridorozhni (Rus) drew with Joel Lautier (Fra) 1-1 goes to tiebreak; Lazaro Bruzon (Cub) lost to Nikolai Kabanov (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Vasquez Rodrigo (Chi) drew with Evgeny Bareev (Rus) 0.5-1.5; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) beat Nurlan Ibraev (Kaz) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Li Shilong (Chn) lost to Francisco Vallejo Pons (Esp) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Ilia Smirin (Isr) drew with Walter Arencibia (Cub) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Yu Shaoteng (Chn) drew with P Harikrishna (Ind) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Vladimir Malakhov (Rus) beat Wang Hao (Chn) 1.5-0.5; Lima Darcy Gustavo (Bra) lost to Konstantin Sakaev (Rus) 0-2; Andrei Volokitin (Ukr) drew with Cao Sang (Hun) 0.5-1.5; Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr) lost to Alexander Moiseenko (Ukr) 0-2; Krishnan Sasikiran (Ind) beat Alexei Iljushin (Rus) 1.5-0.5; Sergey Kudrin (Usa) beat Pavel Eljanov (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Hikaru Nakamura lost to Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind) 0-2; Yuri Shulman (Usa) drew with Vadim Zvjaginsev (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Sergey Karjakin (Ukr) drew with Csaba Balogh (Hun) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Evgenij Agrest (Swe) drew with Artyom Timofeev (Rus) 1-1, goes to tiebreak; Zurab Azmaiparashvili (Geo) beat Magnus Carlsen (Nor) 1-1, goes to tiebreak.