Overnight sole leader Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi played out a quick draw with Hikaru Nakamura of the USA, while R. Vaishali missed out on opportunities to split a point with French Sophie Millet at the FIDE Grand Swiss.
Top seed Fabiano Caruana of the United States, Andrey Esipenko of Russia, and Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania joined Gujrathi in the lead on six points, and it looks like a photo finish is on the cards with just three rounds remaining in the USD 460,000 tournament.
The other Indian in close contention in the open section, Arjun Erigaisi, drew with Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine and is in a wolf-pack of nine players on 5.5 points looking to seal a berth in the top two that guarantees a place in the next Candidates tournament.
Vidit played out one of the shortest games of the event. Playing the white side of a Sicilian Alapin, the Indian did not face much complication on board, and Nakamura equalised easily. The game lasted a mere 16 moves.
READ: FIDE Grand Swiss: Vidit Gujrathi takes sole lead; Vaishali joins leaders’ pack
Arjun got some intimidating initiative with white pieces against Kuzubov. An excellent control in the centre in the middle game and potential for what looked like a dangerous king-side attack had everyone gunning for Arjun, but for the second day in a row, the Indian slipped and the game ended in a draw.
In the women’s section, Vaishali too missed out yet again after a promising start against Millet. The ensuing middle game arising out of a king pawn game saw Vaishali come out guns blazing with some finely crafted maneuvers, only to let the position go out of hand a few minutes later.
Praggnanandhaa’s sister fought on, but in the end, it was a stalemate on board after 70 moves.
Vaishali remained in a three-way lead on six points, along with her overnight co-leaders Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine. Four players—Tan Zhongyi of China, Leya Garifullina of Russia, Batkhuyag Munguntuul of Mongolia, and Millet—are in close pursuit of the leaders, a half point behind.
In the open section, Nihal Sarin raised the vision of coming close to the podium, defeating Niclas Huschenbeth of Germany and reaching five points. Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan. The Indian missed a great opportunity for his second straight victory following a blunder by Yakubboev in a theoretical rook and pawns endgame.
In other notable results, P Harikrishna, Aryan Chopra and S L Narayanan were held to draws by Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan, Mathias Bluebaum of Germany and Aryan Tari of Norway respectively.
In the women’s section, Tania Sachdev won as white against Mariam Mkrtchyan of Armenia, while D Harika was held to a draw by Teodora Injac of Serbia. Both Tania and Harika have four points apiece.
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