By Admin 
Seeds are falling thick and fast at Resort Rio. The biggest of them fell on Saturday night.
The top seed D. Gukesh was stunned by Germany’s Frederik Svane in the second game of the third round at the chess World Cup. After drawing the first game the Chennai lad, who had become the youngest World champion in history last year, had needed at least draw with white pieces to stay alive in the tournament, but he resigned after 55 moves in hopeless knight-and-pawn ending.
The day also saw the fourth seed Anish Giri crashing out. Like Gukesh, the Dutchman also needed at least a draw from Alexander Donchenko of Germany, but lost.
On the top boards, Arjun Erigaisi and R. Praggnanandhaa ensured the Indian flag flew high. Arjun drew with Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov – it was his first draw here after three straight wins – and Praggnanandhaa beat Robert Hovhannisyan of Armenia to win their matches 1.5-0.5.
Among the top five seeds, only those two remain in the competition. Seeds eight and nine, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan, were also eliminated, by Mexico’s Jose Martínez Alcantara and Sweden’s Nils Grandelius, respectively.
Besides Praggnanandhaa and Arjun, two other Indians have made it to the fourth round – V. Pranav and P. Harikrishna. But it was the end of the road for M. Pranesh and Diptayan Ghosh, after losing to Vincent Keymer, the sixth seed from Germany, and Gabriel Sarissian of Armenia, respectively.
Three more Indians are still in contention, though: Vidit Gujrathi, S.L. Narayanan and Karthik Venkataraman will play Sunday’s tie-breakers.
Important results (third round): D. Gukesh 0.5 lost to Frederik Svane (Ger) 1.5; Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb) 0.5 lost to Arjun Erigaisi; R. Praggnanandhaa 1.5 bt Robert Hovhannisyan (Arm) 0.5; Anish Giri (Ned) 0.5 lost to Alexander Donchenko (Ger) 1.5; Titas Stremavicius (Ltu) 0.5 drew with V. Pranav 1.5; M. Pranesh 0.5 lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger) 1.5; Wei Yi (Chn) 1 drew with Benjamin Gledura (Hun) 5; Jose Martínez Alcantara (Mex) 2 bt Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) 0; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) 0.5 lost to Nils Grandelius (Swe) 1.5; Michael Adams (Eng) 0.5 lost to Lorenzo Lodici (Ita) 1.5; Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 1 drew with Vladilsav Artemiev (Rus) 1; Gabriel Sarissian (Arm) 1.5 bt Diptayan Ghosh 0.5; Le Quang Liem (Vie) 1.5 drew with Jeffrey Xiong (USA) 0.5; Yagiz Erdogmus (Tur) 1 drew with Richard Rapport (Hun) 1; Levon Aronian (USA) 1.5 bt Salem Saleh (UAE) 0.5; Nikolas Theodorou (Gre) 0.5 lost to Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) 1.5; Vidit Gujrathi 1 drew with Sam Shankland (USA) 1; Yu Yangyi (Chn) 1 drew with S.L. Narayanan 1; Radoslaw Wjtaszek (Pol) 2 bt Vladimir Fedoseev (Slo) 0; Bogdan-Daniel Deac (Gre) 1 drew with Karthik Venkataraman 1; Daniel Dardha (Bel) 0.5 drew with P. Harikrishna 1.5; Kirill Alekseenko (Rus) 0.5 lost to Peter Leko (Hun) 1.5.