German Vincent Keymer on Friday showed why he is rated so highly as he outmaneuvered the World junior champion V. Pranav to jump into sole lead after two rounds in the Masters section of the Quantbox Chennai Grandmasters chess tournament here.

Keymer, playing black pieces, had to bring out his best to subdue the local player, who held his own against a higher-rated opponent and even held the advantage mid-game.

The 20-year-old German defended well and gained the advantage using the knight and sealed victory in 46 moves.

In the other decisive result of the day in the Masters event, American Ray Robson capitalised on Vidit Gujrathi’s errors to pull off a win.

In a topsy-turvy encounter, Vidit faltered from a hard-earned winning position in the endgame against Robson, who posted his first win of the tournament after a time scramble.

Arjun Erigaisi, the top-rated player here, had to settle for a draw against Dutch player Jorden van Foreest.

“It was an interesting game. Playing with the white pieces, I was a little bit ambitious. But of course, he’s very strong. Actually, I was on the defensive at some point. So, overall, a draw is a good result,” van Foreest said.

Indian GM Nihal Sarin missed out on securing a win after working his way to a superior position against the seasoned Dutchman Anish Giri.

In the Challengers section, Pa. Iniyan and Abhimanyu Puranik registered wins over D. Harika and Leon Mendonca respectively. The duo is in joint lead on 1.5 points with M. Pranesh and Dipatyan Ghosh. Harika lost her second straight game, after an opening round defeat at the hands of Dipatyan while R. Vaishali shared the point with the experienced B. Adhiban.

The results: Second round: Masters: Karthikeyan Murali (1) drew with Awonder Liang (USA, 0.5), Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (1.5), Ray Robson (USA, 1.5) bt Vidit Gujrathi (0.5), Nihal Sarin (0.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 1), V. Pranav (0.5) lost to Vincent Keymer (Ger, 2).

Challengers: G. B. Harshavardhan (0.5) drew with Aryan Chopra (0.5); Dipatyan Ghosh (1.5) drew with M. Pranesh (1.5); Pa. Iniyan (1.5) bt D. Harika (0); B. Adhiban (1) drew with R. Vaishali (1), Abhimanyu Puranik (1.5) bt Leon Mendonca (1).

Third round pairings: Masters: Keymer vs. Karthikeyan; Giri vs. Pranav; Vidit vs. Nihal; Arjun vs. Robson, Liang vs. van Foreest.

Challengers: Abhimanyu vs. Harshavardhan, Vaishali vs. Mendonca, Harika vs. Adhiban, Pranesh vs. Iniyan, Aryan vs. Dipatyan.