Panaji: Reigning world junior champion Pranav V sent his good friend Aryan Tari from Norway packing from the World Cup to qualify for the third round here.
A day after he fared slightly poorly in the second classical game, Pranav utilised the rapid tiebreaks to outplay former world junior champion and five-time Norwegian champ Tari 2.5-1.5. Pranav is the lone Indian player in fray among all the wildcard recipients to play the third round comprising just 64 players.
In the first set of tiebreaks, the 19-year-old Pranav prevailed over Tari in 43 moves with white pieces, making the most of his opponent’s 33rd move blunder to take the lead. The following game between the two world junior champions was a clash of tactical brilliance where the younger one came out with all his defensive weapons to secure a draw in a marathon 98 moves. The game lasted for one hour and 13 minutes, and Pranav became the third Indian to qualify for the third round.
“I have played Aryan a lot, and even he knows that I have tricked him a lot of times in both the blitz and rapid formats,” Pranav told TOI later. “I could have won yesterday only but messed it up with my white pieces.”
On his aspirations, Pranav said, “Winning the world junior championship is a thing, but I am aiming for much higher stuff. Like here in this World Cup, I want to do very well, so, yes, my other aims are to try to qualify for the world championship cycle. Since the World Cup is the only qualification thing left for the Candidates, I will try my best here.”
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