Vaishali Rameshbabu’s defence of her FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss title is off to a solid start as the grandmaster has won both her first two games at Uzbekistan’s Samarkand. After defeating Gulrukhbegim Tokhirjonova in the first round, Vaishali took down Dutch IM Eline Roebers in 22 crisp moves to stay as one of the two players to win both their games.
On Saturday, Vaishali will face off against Olga Badelka, the only other player besides herself in the women’s section to win both of her games so far.
INTERACTIVE: How Vaishali beat Eline Roebers
Two years back, Vaishali had been a surprise winner of the Women’s Grand Swiss, along with Vidit Gujrathi in the open section, to book as spot in the Women’s Candidates tournament. After a first round victory, Vidit was held to draw by Alexandr Predke.
INTERACTIVE: Vidit Santosh Gujrathi vs Abhimanyu Puranik
Also remarkable was the result of IM Vantika Agrawal, who managed to hold grandmaster Bibisara Assaubayeva to a draw to stay unbeaten in the tournament. Vantika had piled on the pressure over Bibisara but could not convert her advantage.
INTERACTIVE: Vantika Agrawal vs Bibisara Assaubayeva
After a draw in the first round, top seed in the open section, Praggnanandha, managed to secure his first win, defeating Ivan Zemlyanskii.
Also getting wins were Arjun Erigaisi, Leon Luke Mendonca, Nihal Sarin and Aryan Chopra. Meanwhile, Divya Deshmukh, Vidit Gujrathi, Abhimanyu Puranik, Harikrishna Pentala, Raunak Sadhwani, Narayanan SL all ground out draws.
The wins for Pragg and Arjun, coupled with draws for world champion Gukesh and Vidit mean that they’re all tied on 1½ points. In fact, in the open section of Grand Swiss, there are currently just three players — Anton Demchenko, Alireza Firouzja, Parham Maghsoodloo — who have won both games and find themselves on two points. There are seven Indians just half a point behind in the chasing pack of 30 players.
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Gukesh was held to a draw by 14-year-old Turkish prodigy, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus.
INTERACTIVE: Arjun Erigaisi vs Haik M Martirosyan
INTERACTIVE: How Praggnanandhaa defeated Ivan Zemlyanskii
Open section round 3 pairings at Grand Swiss
Arjun Erigaisi (1½) vs Anton Demchenko (2)
Boris Gelfand (1½) vs Praggnanandhaa R (1½)
Daniil Yuffa (1½) vs Gukesh D (1½)
Nodirbek Abdusattorov (1½) vs Abhimanyu Puranik (1½)
Leon Luke Mendonca (1½) vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (1½)
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (1½) vs Alexandr Predke (1½)
Nihal Sarin (1½) vs Yuriy Kuzubov (1½)
Aryan Chopra (1) vs Amin Tabatabaei (1)
Raunak Sadhwani (1) vs Andy Woodward (1)
Nils Grandelius (1) vs Aditya Mittal (1)
Dmitrij Kollars (1) vs Pranav V (1)
SL Narayanan (1) vs Nikolas Theodorou (1)
Jakhongir Vakhidov (1) vs Harikrishna Pentala (½)
Divya Deshmukh (½) vs Murali Karthikeyan (0)
Women’s section round 3 pairings at Grand Swiss
Vaishali Rameshbabu (2) vs Olga Badelka (2)
Song Yuxin (1½) vs Vantika Agrawal (1½)
Qi Guo (1) vs Harika Dronavalli (1)
