Debashis Das holds Veselin Topalov

Grandmaster Debashis Das came up with his best performance ever to hold former world champion Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria to a creditable draw in the second round of the Masters’ section of Tradewise Gibraltar Chess festival, here on Thursday. On a day of upsets, Indian Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna defeated highly regarded Grandmaster Emil Sutovsky of Israel while former world junior girls? champion Soumya Swaminathan came with an inspired performance to beat American Kayden Troff to maintain a clean slate after two games. Also ending on a high was Indian GM M R Venkatesh who scored a fine victory over Simen Agdestein of Norway. With eight rounds still to come, it was business as usual for some of the higher-ranked players but highest rated Indian P Harikrishna had to show his endgame-magic before he could secure his second victory in the tournament.