New Delhi: Indian Grandmaster R. Vaishali defeated former world champion Maria Muzychuk (Ukraine) to take joint lead in the women’s section of the FIDE Grand Swiss Chess Tournament after the first round, placing 10th and last. Vaishali knew that only victory could keep her in the race of candidates. He adopted an aggressive approach from the beginning. Playing the Sveshnikov variant of the Sicilian Defence, she was briefly in trouble, but taking advantage of Maria’s errors under pressure, Vaishali won the match in 42 moves.
With this win, Vaishali moved into joint lead with Ukraine’s Kateryna Lagano with 7.5 points. Behind them, China’s Zongyi Tan, Yushin Song and Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Asaubayeva are trailing with 7 points each. If Vaishali draws even in the final round, its chances of getting a place among the candidates will become very strong.
So the hopes of Indian players in the open category were dashed. Arjun Erigaisi had drawn with Yu Yangyi of China while Nihal Sarin also could not get past Nadirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan. In this tournament R. Praggnanandhi’s chances of getting a place among the candidates are almost over because he lost against American Hans Moke Niemann.
In the open category, Alireza Firoza (France), Germany’s Matthias Blubaum and Vincent Camer, Holland’s Anish Giri and Niemann are now jointly leading with 7 points each. In the Indian camp, Praggnanandha still has the strongest chance of getting a place among the candidates as she is in a position to qualify based on her performance throughout the year.
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