Vidit Gujrathi Remains on Top in Prague Chess Tourney

Indian Grand Master Vidit Gujrathi opened up a one-point lead after posting an impressive win over world's top junior Alireza Firouzja in the fifth round of the Prague Chess Festival's Masters Category here.

Prague, Feb 17 (PTI) Indian Grand Master Vidit Gujrathi opened up a one-point lead after posting an impressive win over world's top junior Alireza Firouzja in the fifth round of the Prague Chess Festival's Masters Category here.

The 25-year old notched up his third win by outclassing his Iranian opponent in a 24-move Slav exchange late on Sunday.

Firouzja, playing with black pieces, underestimated the power of the exchanged variants and went down without much of a fight.

"I am happy with the way the games are going," Gujrathi said after moving to four points from five games.

P Harikrishna, the other Indian in the 10-player field, held higher-rated Russian Nikita Vitiugov in 59 moves, to take his tally to two points.

Vitiugov and top seed Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland are in second spot with three points.

Duda (Elo rating 2755) could not force a win over Swedish GM Nils Grandelius, the lowest-rated player in the Masters event at 2659.

In the sixth round to be played on Tuesday after a day's rest, Harikrishna will meet David Anton Guijarro and Gujrathi will take on Vitiugov.

Results of Round 5:

P Harikrishna (India) 2 drew with Nikita Vitiugov (RUS) 2; Vidit Gujrathi (India) 4 beat Alirez Firouzja (Iran) 2.5; Sam Shankland (USA) 2 drew with David Anton Guijarro (SPA) 2.5; Markus Ragger (Austria) 2 drew with Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) 3; David Navara (Italy) beat Nils Grandelius (Sweden) 2.

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from Syndicated News feed, LatestLY Staff may not have modified or edited the content body)

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