STAVANGER (NORWAY), May 29:
India’s R Vaishali came up with a stupendous effort to beat compatriot Koneru Humpy and jump into sole lead in the women’s section of the Norway chess tournament here.
With each victory under classical time control worth three points, Vaishali got an early advantage moving to four points after the second round and her first-round loss against Wenjun Ju of China under faster time control does not matter so much right now.
India’s third and latest Grandmaster among women, Vaishali with four points is at the helm followed by the Chinese duo of Tingjie Lei and Ju, Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine and Pia Cramling of Sweden share the fourth spot in the six-players double round robin event, while Humpy currently is languishing at the bottom on 1.5 points.
In the men’s section, World number one Magnus Carlsen emerged as the sole leader on another day that had only Armageddon to decide the winners.
The Norway Chess features a distinctive format where drawn classical games lead to Armageddon tiebreakers to ensure a winner after every round. While 10 minutes are provided to white, black gets 7 minutes to determine the winner of the contest. Black pieces win if the game ends in a draw.
Carlsen proved superior than Hikaru Nakamura of United States in the Armageddon. It is no secret anymore that the world’s best player and five times world champion does not enjoy Classical chess as much as before.
Carlsen drew in the Classical for the second day in the running and then romped home in the faster time control over Nakamura.
The lone Indian aspirant Praggnanandhaa had a tough day in office as he lost to reigning World champion Ding Liren of China in the tiebreaker. After drawing the first game confidently, Pragg somehow could not resist the perseverance of Liren who was like a man on a mission. (PTI)
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