Vidit Gujrathi reached the quarterfinals of the FIDE World Cup underway in Azerbaijan’s capital city of Baku on Monday.
The 28-year-old got the better of 33-year-old Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi in a marathon fixture to book his place in the last eight of the prestigious tournament.
Gujrathi will take on hometown hope Nijat Abasov in the quarterfinal fixture for a place in the final four of the coveted event.
The 28-year-old Azerbaijani chess master Abasov reached the quarterfinal of the event with his 2-0 win over AR Saleh Salem in the fifth round, to set up an encounter.
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A day earlier, Indian GM D Gukesh got the better of Hao Wang in the fifth round of the event 1.5-0.5 to set up a mouth-watering quarterfinal clash against Magnus Carlsen, who outclassed Vasyl Ivanchuk 2-0 in his fifth round encounter.
Gukesh got the beating of Andrey Esipenko in the fourth round after wins over SL Narayanan, and Misratdin Isakdarov following his opening-round bye.
India is guaranteed to have one player at the very least in the semifinal following the draw that pitted Arjun Erigasi and R Praggnanandhaa against one another in the quarterfinal after their wins over Nils Grandelius and Ferenc Berkes in the fifth round respectively.
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Praggnanandhaa was given a first-round bye and he followed it up with a show of dominance against Maxime Lagarde in the second round, before easing past David Navara in the third.
The 18-year-old got the better of Hikaru Nakamura in the fourth round before his win over Berkes to reach the quarters on Sunday.
Erigasi, who was also awarded an opening-round bye, got the beating of Sergei Azarov in the second round before he outclassed his third-round opponent, Vladimir Fedoseev. He was pitted against Javakhoir Sindarov in the fourth round and he showed his mettle to progress to the 5th round, where he ousted Grandelius.
