Grand Chess Tour: After having a dominating first day at the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament, India's Legendary Chess player Viswanathan Anand endured a modest second day at the competition. Playing the three rounds on Day 2 on Thursday, Anand bagged a win, a draw and a loss in each of the games to collect just 3 points. He defeated Ivan Saric in round four, settled for a draw against Fabiano Caruana and then lost to world No.1 Magnus Carlsen.
Notably, Grandmaster D Gukesh made a comeback on the day, winning two matches and completing a draw in the third. Gukesh settled for a stalemate against Richard Rapport and then defeated Constantin Lupulescu and Saric to end the day on a high note. He collected five points and jumped to the joint-second spot in the standings.
Viswanathan, Nepomniachtchi and Caruana share the top spot
Despite not having a great day, Viswanathan managed to stay in joint first place in the standings after two days. However, he was chased down by Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana. All three have 8 points each, while India's Gukesh and Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda occupy the second place with seven points to their name.
Viswanathan and Gukesh's first day
Viswanathan bagged two wins and completed a draw on the first day to take the lead. He started the day with a draw against Alireza Firouzja before outclassing GMs Richard Rapport and Constantin Lupulescu. Meanwhile, Gukesh had a poor opening day to begin the competition. He lost the opening match to Carlsen and then only managed to draw the next two games with Nepomniachtchi and Firouzja. Gukesh had only two points to his name and was in ninth place after the day.
