After ending runner-up within the speedy occasion, Arjun Erigaisi is making a robust bid for a high prize within the blitz part of the Tata Metal Chess India event as nicely. He goes into the ultimate day as the only chief.
On the finish of the ninth spherical on the Nationwide Library right here on Saturday, Arjun, final 12 months’s speedy champion and runner-up in blitz, has 6.5 factors. With one other 9 rounds remaining, he’s adopted half-a-point behind by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.
Vidit Gujrathi has 5.5 factors, whereas Nihal Sarin, the champion within the speedy part, is on 5, together with high seed Hikaru Nakamura of the US. Arjun had crushed the American with black items within the eighth spherical and his solely defeat of the day got here towards Mamedyarov within the sixth.
Within the ladies’s part, R. Vaishali is within the second place, with seven factors, trailsing the only chief Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine by one level. Dronavalli Harika, who had completed third within the speedy occasion, is sharing the third spot, with Muzychuk’s older sister Anna.
Vaishali scored some vital wins towards Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze, fellow-Indian Koneru Humpy and Ukraine’s Anna Ushenina, the winner of the ladies’s speedy occasion. It was, nevertheless, one other Indian woman that caught the attention within the early rounds, three of which have been gained on the trot by B. Savitha Shri, who beat Dzagnidze and the elder of the Muzychuk sisters, however couldn’t construct on that momentum.
The outcomes (Indians until specified)
Ninth spherical
Open: R. Praggnanandhaa 4 misplaced to Hikaru Nakamura (US) 5; Wesley So (US) 3 bt D. Gukesh 4; Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Aze) 6 misplaced to Vidit Gujrathi 5.5; Maghsoodloo Parham (IRI) 4 drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) 2; Arjun Erigaisi 6.5 drew with Nihal Sarin 5.
Ladies: Oliwia Kiolbasa (Pol) 3 misplaced to Koneru Humpy 4.5; Anna Ushenina (Ukr) 4 misplaced to R. Vaishali 7; Dronavalli Harika 5 bt B. Savitha Shri 4; Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) misplaced to Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr) 8; Bhakti Kulkari 2.5 bt Anna Muzychuk (Ukr) 5.
