Asian Chess Championship: Praggnanandhaa joins five others in lead; Tania, Vantika, Bhakti, Aryan lose

Praggnanandhaa joined M. Karthikeyan, Leon Mendonca, Harsha Bharathakoti, Koustav Chatterjee and Turkmenistan’s Maksat Atabayev to share the lead at 3.5 points at the Asian chess championship.

Praggnanandhaa in action. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B

With a third straight victory, R. Praggnanandhaa became part of the leading pack of six players for the first time before Tania Sachdev suffered a shock loss and slipped out of the four-player leaders’ group in the women’s section of the Asian chess championship here.

After four rounds, Praggnanandha, his sparring partner M. Karthikeyan, overnight sole leader Leon Mendonca, Harsha Bharathakoti, Koustav Chatterjee and Turkmenistan’s Maksat Atabayev shared the lead at 3.5 points.

With a similar tally, Tania’s conqueror N. Priyanka, Soumya Swaminathan, P. V. Nandhidhaa and Vietnamese Vo Thi Kim Phung were ahead among the women.

A day after taking down second seeded Mongolian Nomin-Erdene Davaademberel, Saina Salonika stunned fourth seeded former champion Bhakti Kulkarni.

In the Open section, 32nd rated Atabayev shocked fifth seed Aryan Chopra. In the women’s category, fifth seed Vantika Agrawal went down to Nandhidhaa, seeded 13th.

Leading fourth-round results (Indians unless stated):

Open: Leon Mendonca (3.5) drew with S. L. Narayanan (3); Pranav Anand (2.5) lost to R. Praggnanandhaa (3.5); Aditya Mittal (2.5) lost to M. Karthikeyan (3.5); Koustav Chatterjee (3.5) bt Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 2.5); Raja Rithvik (3) drew with B. Adhiban (3); Sandipan Chanda (2.5) lost to Harsha Bharathakoti (3.5); Shyam Sundar (3) drew with Atabayev Saparmyrat (Tkm, 3); Aryan Chopra (2) lost to Maksat Atabayev (Tkm, 3.5); M. Pranesh (2) lost to S. P. Sethuraman (3); L. R. Srihari (2) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (3).

Women: N. Priyanka (3.5) bt Tania Sachdev (2.5); Vantika Agrawal (2.5) lost to P. V. Nandhidhaa (3.5); Rakshitaa Ravi (3) drew with Nilufar Yakubbaeva (Uzb, 3); Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie, 3.5) bt Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 2.5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 2.5) lost to Soumya Swaminathan (3.5); Saina Salonika (3) bt Bhakti Kulkarni (2); Divya Deshmukh (2.5) drew with C. Sahajasri (2.5); Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2.5) drew with Mary Ann Gomes (2.5); Padmini Rout (2.5) bt Mrudul Dehankar (1.5); Nisha Mohota (2) drew with Eesha Karavade (2).