Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi played out a quick draw in his first ever meeting in the classical format against world champion Magnus Carlsen to stay in joint second spot in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament on Friday.
Playing black, the 22-year-old from Nashik wasn’t willing to take any risks and by the 15th move it was clear that the round 7 top table match-up was heading to a stalemate. The two players signed a peace treaty on the 31st move to ensure that Carlsen remained in sole lead with six points from a possible seven with two rounds to go.
Gujrathi, who was in sole second position after round 6, was however joined by US GMs Fabiano Caruana, Hiraku Nakamura, Pavel Eljanov of Ukraine and Emil Sutovsky of Israel as they garnered a full point from their respective matches.
Among the other Indians in fray, Viswanathan Anand settled for a draw against Aleksandr Lenderman to stay in joint third position with five points while the likes of D Harika, Aravindh Chithambaram and R Praggnanandhaa suffered reversals against higher ranked opponents.