Still in control: Carlsen lost to Erigaisi in the eighth round, is only half a point ahead of Praggnanandhaa. | Photo: DEBASISH BHADURI
You expect strange things to happen in blitz chess.
Still, you wouldn’t quite expect to find Magnus Carlsen in a lost position by the 12th move, especially after he had been massacring the opposition and winning a tournament by two points just a day earlier. He played just eight more moves against Arjun Erigaisi before resigning in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Chess India blitz tournament on Saturday.
The World No. 1 from Norway then survived a scare against another Indian rival, Vidit Gujrathi, before managing a draw from an inferior position. He thus was still in the sole lead position after nine rounds at the Dhano Dhanyo Auditorium.
Carlsen, who had to pay a heavy price for blundering with his queen when a simple pawn push was required on that 12th move of his, is on 6.5 points. He is half-a-point ahead of the second-placed R. Praggnanandhaa, who had an extraordinary day: he lost his first three games and then won the next six in a row.
Arjun and Daniil Dubov of Russia have 5.5 points each. Another nine rounds remain.
There is a clear leader in the women’s event too. Kateryna Lagno has seven points, one more than Valentina Gunina. Aleksandra Goryachkina is lying third with five points, making it a 1-2-3 for Russia in the leaders’ table. Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Koneru Humpy have made it 4-5-6 for India; they should, of course, be hoping to improve those places on Monday, the final day of the tournament.
The results (Men):
Ninth round: Vincent Keymer (Ger) 2 lost to S.L. Narayanan 3.5; Nihal Sarin 3.5 drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) 4; Daniil Dubov (Rus) 5.5 drew with Wesley So (USA) 3.5; Arjun Erigaisi 5.5 lost to R. Praggnanandhaa 6; Vidit Gujrathi 5 drew with Magnus Carslen (Nor) 6.5.
Eighth round: Narayanan lot to Gujrathi; Carlsen lost to Arjun; Praggnandhaa bt Dubov; So bt Nihal; Abdusattorov bt Keymer.
Seventh round: Abdusattorov bt Narayanan; Keymer bt So; Nihal lost to Praggnanandhaa; Dubov drew with Carlsen; Arjun bt Gujrathi.
Sixth round: Narayanan drew with Arjun; Gujrathi drew with Dubov; Carlsen bt Nihal; Praggnanandhaa bt Keymer; So lost to Abudsattorov.
Women:
Ninth round: D. Harika 4 drew with Koneru Humpy 4.5; Valentina Gunina (Rus) 6 lost to Kateryna Lagno (Rus) 7; Divya Deshmukh 4.5 bt Vantika Agrawal 4.5; R. Vaishali 3.5 lost to Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 2 Alexandra Kosteniuk (Swi) 4 bt Aleksandra Goryachkina (Rus) 5.
Eighth round: Humpy drew with Kosteniuk; Goryachkina drew with Vaishali; Dzagnidze lost to Divya; Vantika lost to Gunina; Lagno bt Harika.
Seventh round: Lagno drew with Humpy; Harika drew with Vantika; Gunina bt Dzagnidze; Divya drew with Goryachkina; Vaishali bt Kosteniuk.
Sixth round: Humpy bt Vaishali; Kosteniuk lost to Divya; Goryachkina lost to Gunina; Dzagnidze bt Harika; Vantika drew with Lagno.
Published – November 16, 2024 07:45 pm IST
