World Chess Cup: Diptayan Ghosh ousts Nepomniachtchi

Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh caused the biggest upset of the World Chess Cup, ousting former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after winning the second game of the second round here on Wednesday.

In what was simply a one sided affair, Ghosh did not give any chance to Nepomniachtchi who was rather erratic with his white pieces. The opening gave Ghosh an unclear position early and Nepomniachtchi missed a simple tactics early in the middle game which cost him a pawn.

Once the technicalities arrived, Ghosh was at the top of his game and kept on increasing pressure by exchanging pieces at regular intervals. Soon, it was a rook and pawns endgame on board in no time.

“This is certainly the biggest victory of my chess career, beating Nepo in a match," said Ghosh after his win.

Earlier, Grandmaster P Harikrishna became the first Indian to advance to the third round after crushing Arseniy Nesterov, also of Russia, while world junior champion V Pranav suffered a huge defeat against Aryan Tari of Norway.

A leader with the benefit of winning with black, Pranav blew his chances away and his loss to Tari means that both will now play the tie-break games to determine the way ahead.