Vaishali prolonged her lead within the match, reaching 8.5 factors after defeating veteran Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling. This victory, her second consecutive win in classical time management, solidifies her place on the prime of the leaderboard.Trailing Vaishali are Ladies’s World Champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, each with 6.5 factors.
Muzychuk secured her first victory of the match in opposition to Koneru Humpy, whereas Wenjun emerged victorious in opposition to her compatriot Tingjie Lei after a tiebreak.
Within the males’s part, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen secured a vital victory in opposition to his long-time rival Fabiano Caruana. French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja additionally scored a major win in opposition to reigning World Champion Ding Liren.
Hikaru Nakamura of the USA at the moment leads the boys’s part with 7 factors, adopted by Alireza with 6.5 factors. Carlsen sits in third place with 6 factors, whereas Praggnanandhaa, after his loss to Nakamura, holds the fourth place with 5.5 factors.
Vaishali’s victory was a testomony to her resilience. Regardless of a drawn rook and pawns endgame, she capitalized on a crucial blunder by Cramling to safe the win. Equally, Muzychuk’s victory over Humpy additionally stemmed from a decisive error by Humpy in a drawn rook and pawns endgame.
Praggnanandhaa’s loss to Nakamura was characterised by a sequence of unforced errors. Regardless of attaining a dynamic stability within the center sport, Praggnanandhaa’s over-optimistic knight sacrifice backfired, permitting Nakamura to capitalize on his materials benefit and safe the win.
The match, with a prize purse of USD 1,61,000, is much from over, with six rounds remaining within the double round-robin format. The upcoming rounds promise to be essential for all gamers as they vie for the highest spot.
Males: Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 7) beat R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5) 3-0; Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5) misplaced to Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 6) 0-3; Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 6.5) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) 3-0.
Ladies: Pia Cramling (Swe, 3) misplaced to R Vaishali (Ind, 8.5); Tingjie Lei (Chn, 5) misplaced to Wenjun Ju (Chn, 6); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6) beat Koneru Humpy (Ind, 3).
(Inputs from PTI)
