New Delhi: Grandmaster R Vaishali was the only Indian to qualify for the knockout stage as the Indian contingent endured a mixed day at the World Blitz Chess Championship 2024 in New York on Tuesday. Vaishali produced a brilliant display as she remained unbeaten and finished with 9.5 points to top the leaderboard and enter the quarterfinals of the tournament.
Meanwhile, newly-crowned women’s rapid champion Koneru Humpy had a disappointing day as she missed out on a historic double after failing to qualify for the knockout stage. Humpy finished ninth with 8 points out of 11 to miss out on making it to the next round by a whisker as the top eight progressed to the knockouts.
In the ‘Open’ section, where the prodigious R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi were leading India’s challenge, faltered as they both failed to make it to the knockout stage. India no.1 Arjun bowed out of the race for the knockout stage after losing against Belarusian grandmaster Daniel Lazavik while Praggnanandhaa finished in the 24th place after his loss to Russia’s Daniil Dubov in his last round.
Praggnanandhaa lost in the opening round but made a good comeback to take 4.5 points in the next five rounds, beating the likes of Armenia’s Shant Sargsyan, Juraj Druska and Elshan Moradiabadi. However, he couldn’t continue his winning streak for long as he went down against Filipino-American grandmaster Wesley So before going down against Volodar Murzin.
His defeat against Dubov in the final round came as the final nail in the coffin as Praggnanandhaa was eliminated from the race for the knockouts by finishing 24th. Both Praggnanandhaa and Arjun failed to finish in the top 20.
R Vaishali remains unbeaten to keep India’s hopes alive
Vaishali’s impressive show kept India’s hopes alive in the tournament as she remained unbeaten to qualify for the quarters. Vaishali won against some big names, including the likes of Poland’s Polina Shuvalova, Georgia’s Nana Dzagnidze and the defending blitz champion Valentina Gunina of Russia to finish on the top spot in the women’s leaderboard.
Meanwhile, the other Indians in fray – Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Harika Dronavalli finished 18th, 19th and 22nd, respectively to miss out on qualification for the next round. Vaishali will next face China’s Zhu Jiner in the quarterfinals on Wednesday.
Indians had a mixed day at the World Blitz Championship 2024 in New York on Tuesday as R Vaishali was the lone player from the country to qualify for the knockout stage. Koneru Humpy missed out on a double while R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi also bowed out. Other Sports Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
