R Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh (Pic credit: IPL)
NAGPUR: Vaishali Rameshbabu exposed Divya Deshmukh’s inaccuracy to take the lead with a dominant 31-move win over the women’s World Cup winner in Cyprus on Wednesday. In the return leg of the all-India clash, the 2470 Elo Vaishali didn’t allow Divya to play a marathon game as the 24-year-old Chennai Grandmaster turned her positional advantage into an impressive victory.With her white pieces, the lowest-ranked Candidate Vaishali chose the English Opening and offered her rooks on the 23rd and 31st moves to earn a decisive result against 20-year-old Divya.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Judit Polgar, the only woman player to cross a 2700 Elo rating, said in her commentary: “Vaishali came up with three rook sacrifices in one game.”With her third victory in nine rounds, Vaishali took her tally to 5.5 and now shares the lead with China’s 23-year-old and 2578 Elo Zhu Jiner.
In a lopsided result, Zhu opted for the Reti Opening with her white pieces to prevail over 36-year-old Ukrainian-born Russian GM Kateryna Lagno. The 46-move contest saw Zhu make the most of her extra knight to post her third victory.Ukraine’s 2017 world championship finalist Anna Muzychuk missed a golden opportunity to inflict a third consecutive loss on Tan Zhongyi.Anna settled for a draw in 56 moves to follow the leaders in second position with five points.
Divya and Lagno share third position with 4.5 points.Aleksandra Goryachkina and Bibisara Assaubayeva played out a 37-move draw by repetition to remain level on four points each. In the open field, lowest-ranked German Candidate Matthias Bluebaum held leader Javokhir Sindarov to a draw. Sindarov made a wrong move on the 24th turn and allowed Bluebaum to bring parity. The game ended in a draw after 60 moves.Dutch super GM Anish Giri, with black pieces, upset Fabiano Caruana for his second win. Giri brings the gap down with Sindarov to 1.5 points. Praggnanandhaa R failed to utilise his mid-game advantage against Wei Yi to settle for a 56-move draw. At four points Pragg’s title hopes are now all but over.
