Riga: Indian chess-ax Dronavalli Harika could not break through in the 10th round through the defense of the lower-ranked German Elisabeth Paehtz to slip with 6.5 points in the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss chess tournament here to the joint third.
Harika was against Paahtz on the second board in an Alapin Variation of the Sicilian. The Indian GM got a promising endgame but missed her chance to put the German on a serious test. After Harika opted for natural exchange of the bishops, the match quickly switched to a drawn tower end. The two agreed to split a point on move 31 and both are at 6.5 points after the 10th and penultimate round.
China’s Lei Tingjie confirmed her first place in the first Women’s Grand Swiss after a draw with top-ranked Mariya Muzychuk. She is followed by compatriot Zhu Jiner in second place with seven points and five players with 6.5 / 10 are tied for third place.
Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh, among the other Indian women, achieved victories over Nataliya Buksa and Jesse Nikki February, respectively. Vantika is on six points, while Divya has taken her score to four points after the 10th round.
Meanwhile, R Vaishali and Padmini Rout settled with draws against Antoaneta Stefanova and Elina Danielian respectively. In the Open event, young GM D Gukesh and veteran Surya Shekhar Ganguly were the only winners around. K Sasikiran, who was among the leading group for a few rounds, lost to Russia’s Andrey Esipenko to slip fourth with a combined six points with a bunch of players, including fellow Indians Nihal Sarin and P Harikrishna.
In a clash of generations, veteran Kiril Georgiev, 55, lost to 15-year-old D Gukesh. In a Ragozin variation of the Nimzo Indian, Gukesh succeeded in creating a so-called Octopus – a strongly positioned knight – which, after the shape of the letter ‘W’, its easy waltz of b3 via c5-d3 made -e5 to f3. , where he inflicted a devastating blow on White’s defense.
Gukesh met compatriot GM R Praggnanandhaa in the 11th and final round. Both are at 4.5 points. Alireza Firouzja recovered from his defeat to Fabiano Caruana on Friday by defeating David Howell in the decisive match of the tenth round of the Grand Swiss.
With this victory Firouzja has 7.5 / 10 and enters the final round with a half point advantage over all the others. He is followed by Fabiano Caruana and Grigoriy Oparin who are at 7/10. Ten Indian men and five women play in the tournament.
The Grand Swiss Tournament and Women’s Grand Swiss 2021 are part of the qualifications for the 2021-23 World Championship cycle. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022.
Source: Telangana Today