Stavanger – It was quite a sensational day at the Norway Chess tournament where the Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali maintained the same form and choke as she had in the earlier rounds by beating the Swedish Grandmaster Pia Cramling.
Her brother, R Praggnanandhaa, Parsee, also took part in the game and came across some difficulties during the fourth round against a highly rated American Grandmaster, Hikaru Nakamura, and was finally checkmated.
Sasha’s victory over Cramling, who can be considered a chess celebrity, was her second win with classical time control; Vaishali had made it 2. 5 points. This victory has taken Vaishali’s tally to 8 to become the first woman to achieve this in the history of Chess. Five points, which makes her lead the women’s World champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
In the first round of the seventh consecutive match, Mar deliberation Muzychuk won her previous match Koneru Humpy and Wenjun Ju were from the armageddon match against her compatriot Tingjie Lei. Lei, currently in fourth place, holds five points as the event will now come down to six rounds in this six-player, double round-robin format.
The day was completely reserved for all the decisive games that happened in the men’s section, and the time control was classical. The leader of the world chess rating defeated his close-second competitor, Fabiano Caruana of the United States. Also, Frenchman Alireza Firouzja stood tall over the newest world champion, Ding Liren from China.
Khurm said the tournament had a prize fund of US $ 161,000 and expected many more exciting matches. Thus, after the fourth round, Nakamura is in the lead with seven points, half a point ahead of Firouzja.
Carlsen is a half point behind in third with 6/6 while Fourth-seed Praggnanandhaa went down to fourth place with 5/5. 5 points. Caruana collected five points for the fifth position, and Liren occupied the last rank with only two points. 5 points.
Vaishali’s victory was after a seemingly drawn rook and pawns endgame, but she did not give up on the game. As black in a Grunfeld Defense, she leveled out the game fast and steered into the heavy pieces’ endgame. The decisive moment came when Cramling erred, making the game become a lost position for her, and the game ended after 54 moves.
The course of Humpy’s game with Muzychuk also resembled the above-described match. Although it was an equal battle of a rook and pawns against a rook and pawns, Humpy, with her blunder, handed the win to Muzychuk, who had gone without a classical chess win in seven months.
The match between Nakamura and Praggnanandhaa resulted in Praggnanandhaa applying the Nimzo-Indian defense. Again, the game did not go significantly out of balance, but Praggnanandhaa’s optimistic middle game and knight sacrifice were not enough. As you will see, Nakamura managed to convert these mistakes into a victory on the 86th move.
Carlsen’s victory over Caruana was tense and exciting and was squeezed out of the queen and pawns endgame. Thus, known for his skill in surprising the opponent by choosing the correct plan in an equal position, Carlsen managed to make the best of Caruana’s mistake in the late stage of the game.
Thus, the tournament proceeded, with high stakes and ferocity duly exhibited about the grandmasters as well as the newly emerging ones.