Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her dream run to defeat veteran GM Pia Cramling of Sweden, while her brother R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Hikaru Nakamura of USA in the fourth round of the Norway chess tournament. (More Sports News)
Vaishali stretcꦯhed her lead to 2🐟.5 points following her second win under classical time control.
The Indian now has 8.5 points꧅ in her kitty and is followed by women's world champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk 🐻of Ukraine.
Muzychuk defeated Koneru Humpy ▨for her first win in the tournament while Wenjun got through her compatriot Tingjie Lei🐽 in the Armageddon.
With s𒆙ix rounds still remaining in the s🐷ix-player double round-robin tournament, Lei stands fourth on five points, two points clear of Humpy and Cramling.
In the men's section, world number one Magnus Carlsen grinded d෴own arch-rival Fabiano Caruana of United States on a day that witnessed ꦆall decisive games under classical time control.
In the other game of the day, Firouzja Alireza of France put it across reigning world championꦐ Din💛g Liren of China.
The USD 1,61,000 prize money tournament has many more critical g🐻ames to come but at the end of fourth round Nakamura has nosed ahead on seven points, e♛njoying a half point lead over Alireza.
Carlsen is third with six points to his credit while Praggnanandhaa slipped to fourth position on 5.5 points. Caruana is a close fifth at this stage 🦹with five points while Liren is a distant lastꦺ on just 2.5 points thus far.
Vaishali won thanks to her perseverance𒉰 out of a drawn rook and pawns endgame.
Playing the black side of a Grunfeld defense, the Chennai-based GM had little trouble equalising a✱nd the players arrived at a heavy piece endgame in almost no time.
Cramling had to solve her pawn structure problem a bit and this is where Va💞ishali thought she had a chance.
The game was still within the boundaries of a draw when Cramling blundered and found herself staring at a lost rook and pawns endgame. The gaღme lasted 54 moves.
Humpy lost to Muzychuk in what was a similar story. The rook and pawns endgame should have been a draw but a blunder by Humpy towards tꦍhe end sealed the fate of the game in Muzychuk's favour.
This was Muzychuk's first victory in Classical chess i🎶n almost seven months.
In the men's section, Nakamura capitalised on some unforced errors from Praggnanandhaa. The Nimzo Indian deꦬfense by the Indian resulted in a dynam🌼ic balance but Praggnanandhaa got too optimistic in the resulting middle game and sacrificed a knight.
The compensation, however, was not enough and Nakamura converted his extra material into a full 🥂point after 86 moves.
Carlsen defeated Caruana out of a Queen and pawns endgame. Outplaying his oppone💯nt from a balanced position has long been a hallmark of Carlsen and this day was no different as he w🌊on thanks to a blunder by Caruana in the final part of the game.
Results round 4:
Men: Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 7) beat R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5) 3-0; Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5) lost to Magnus Carlsenไ (Nor, 6) 0-3; Firouzja😼 Alireza (Fra, 6.5) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) 3-0.
Women: Pia Cramling (Swe, 3) lost to R Vaishali (Ind, 8.5); Tingjie Lei (Chn, 5🌃) lost to Wenjun Ju 🐭(Chn, 6); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6) beat Koneru Humpy (Ind, 3).
