Tromso, Norway: Grandmaster and former national champion B Adhiban made the most of his opportunities to beat Brazilian Grandmaster Alexander Fier and advance to the third round of the chess World Cup here.
After drawing the first game as white, Adhiban made good use of his opportunities as Fier went berserk while trying to attack and lost a piece and the game soon after.
The other Indian left in the fray - Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran - again did well to hold the Russian world number nine Sergey Karjakin to tie the two-game match 1-1 and set up a tie-break contest to start with the rapid games.
Chinese teenage sensation Wei Yi continued with his demolition act and ousted highly-regarded Alexei Shirov of Latvia after winning the second game. In the first round, Yi had beaten Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.
Among the higher seeds, Levon Aronian of Armenia, Alexander Grischuk of Russia, Fabiano Caruana of Italy and Vassily Ivanchuk of Ukraine cruised into the third round effectively at the expense of Mikhail Markovof and Dariusz Swierczof of Poland, Yu Yangyi of China and Ray Robson of United States respectively.
However, Gata Kamsky of United States and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia were stretched to the tie-breaker by Russians Alexander Shimanov and Mikhail Kobalija.
Among other fancied players, Anish Giri of Holland accounted for Li Chao of China for the second time in two days while Hikaru Nakamura of United States did not disappoint his fans and moved to the last 32 defeating Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan by 1.5-0.5 margin.
Adhiban stole the thunder showing determination and skill to hold a difficult position against Fier. It was a Four Knights opening by Fier that gave excellent position to the Brazilian as white but he soon crumbled impatiently while going for a quick checkmate with a piece sacrifice.
Adhiban digested the extra piece with remarkable ease and proved that white's attack was only optical.
Sasikiran went for the trusted Breyer defense as black against Karjakin and the Russian could not do much despite having the experience of playing at the top level. The game was drawn in just 23 moves.
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