R Vaisahli kept Indian hopes alive, defeating compatriot Divya Deshmukh in the ninth round of the women`s Candidates Chess Tournament here on Wednesday. After what could be best described as a sedate start, Vaishali has been pushing hard for a win in every game, but this victory kept her in the lead alongside Jiner Zhu of China on 5.5 points out of a possible eight.
With five more rounds to come in the women`s competition, early leader Anna Muzychuk is in close pursuit of the two leaders a half point behind while Divya, Kateryna Lagno of Ukraine and Bibisara Assuabayeva are not far behind. The one player out of contention here is former world women`s champion Zhongyi Tan, who is still looking for the winning touch.
In the open section, Anish Giri almost ended the hopes of pre-event favourite Fabiana Caruana of the United States scoring a brilliant win yet again.
The leader Javokhir Sindarov played the catch-me-if-you-can game with the followers as he took another draw, albeit, hard fought against Matthias BLuebaum of Germany.
As things stand in the open section, Sindarov has seven points from nine games and he is only followed by Giri of Holland, who has reinvented himself to be on 5.5 points.
It remains to be seen if Giri can catch up with Sindarov but the Uzbek has three games out of the remaining five with white pieces now. R Praggnanadhaa tried to prove a point against Wei Yi of China but the Indian clearly spoiled a much better position in the middle game as the match is still on.
Rasults round 9: R Praggnanandhaa (IND, 2) playing Wei Yi (CHN, 3.5); Anish Giri (NED, (5.5) beat Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4,5) Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 7) drew with Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 4); Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 3) playing Andrey Esipenko (RUS, 2.5).
Women: R Vaishali (IND, 5.5) beat Divya Deshmukh (IND, 4.5); Jiner Zhu (CHN, 5.5) beat Kateryna Lagno (RUS, 4.5)); Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS, 4) drew with Bibisara Assuabayeva (KAZ, 4); Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 5) drew with Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 3).
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