FIDE Grand Swiss: Vaishali takes sole lead in women’s section, Gukesh impresses with solid win

NEW DELHI: Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali underlined her strong form at the FIDE Grand Swiss with a third successive victory, moving into sole lead in the women’s section on Saturday.

The 24-year-old scored a fine win over Austria’s Olga Bedelka in the third round to take her tally to three points, half a point clear of her closest pursuers.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!While Vaishali maintained her perfect record, her compatriots endured a mixed day. Vantika Agrawal went down to Yuxin Song of China, while D Harika was forced to split the point with Guo Qi, also of China. Both Harika and Vantika stand at 1.5 points apiece after three rounds.In the open section, world champion D Gukesh produced a clinical performance to outwit Daniil Yuffa of Spain. Playing black, the 19-year-old chose the Ragozin Defense and capitalized on his opponent’s over-ambitious attacking play. Gukesh won a piece in the middlegame, and despite brief defensive challenges, White had little compensation. He duly converted his advantage, moving to 2.5 points out of a possible three.

With Vaishali in command among the women and Gukesh showing champion’s authority in the open, India enjoyed a productive day in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.Important and Indian results round 3 (Indians unless specified):Daniil Yuffa (Esp, 1.5) lost to D Gukesh (2.5); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 1.5) Abhimanyu Puranik (1.5); Leon Luke Mendonca (2) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2); Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2) drew with Alexandr Predke (Srb, 2); Nihal Sarin (1.5) Yuriy Kuzubov (Ukr, 1.5); Aryan Chopra (1.5) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 1.5); Raunak Sadhwani (1) lost to Andy Woodward (Usa, 2); Nils Grandelius (Swe, 1) lost to Aditya Mittal (2); Dmitrij Kollars (Ger, 1) V Pranav (1); S L Narayanan (1.5) drew with Theodorou Nikolas (Gre, 1); Jakhongir Vakhidov (Uzb, 1) playing P Harikrishna (0.5); Divya Deshmukh (0.5) playing Murali Karthikeyan (0).Women: R Vaishali (3) beat Olga Bedelka (Aut, 2); Yuxin Song (Chn, 2.5) beat Vantika Agrawal (1.5); Guo Qi (Chn, 1.5) drew with D Harika (1.5).