FIDE Grand Swiss: R Vaishali Leads Women's Section; D Gukesh Excels In Open

Last Updated:September 06, 2025, 22:16 IST

R Vaishali leads FIDE Grand Swiss women with three wins, beating Olga Bedelka. D Gukesh wins in open section. Vantika Agrawal and D Harika have 1.5 points each.

Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali (X)

Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali took the lead in the women’s section by securing her third consecutive victory, defeating Olga Bedelka of Austria in the third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss on Saturday.

Meanwhile, Vantika Agrawal faced a challenging day and lost to Yuxin Song of China, while D Harika drew with Guo Qi of China. Both Vantika and Harika have 1.5 points each, while Vaishali holds a half-point lead over her closest competitors.

In the open section, world champion D Gukesh capitalised on some reckless play by Spaniard Daniil Yuffa, advancing to 2.5 points out of a possible three. Playing with black pieces, Gukesh chose the Ragozin defense and was pleasantly surprised during the middle game when Yuffa launched an aggressive attack. After winning a piece, Gukesh had to make some defensive moves, but his opponent had no significant compensation. The Indian ace easily secured the win in the end.

Important and Indian results round 3 (Indians unless specified):

Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 2) Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 2); Arjun Erigaisi (1.5) Anton Demchenko (Slo, 2); Boris Gelfand (Isr, 1.5) R Praggnanandhaa (1.5); 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).

(With inputs from PTI)

Ritayan Basu

Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin...Read More

Ritayan Basu, Senior Sub-Editor, Sports at News18.com. Has been covering domestic and and international football for nearly a decade. Has played and covered badminton. Ocassionally writes cricket content, havin...

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News sports FIDE Grand Swiss: R Vaishali Leads Women's Section; D Gukesh Excels In Open

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