Tata Steel Chess: Harika and Ju Wenjun on top after dramatic day one of blitz

With 6.5 points each, they have a lead of 1.5 points over their nearest rivals, second seed Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh, the girl who shook up the tournament by winning the rapid event a day ago.

Harika Dronavalli leads on the 1st day of TATA STEEL CHESS INDIA women’s blitz. | Photo Credit: DEBASISH BHADURI/ The Hindu

It was, quite expectedly, a wild day of blitz chess at the National Library on Sunday. 

Third seed Dronavalli Harika and top seed and World champion Ju Wenjun shared the lead after the ninth round of the women’s blitz section of the Tata Steel Chess India tournament on Sunday.

With 6.5 points each, they have a lead of 1.5 points over their nearest rivals, second seed Koneru Humpy and Divya Deshmukh, the girl who shook up the tournament by winning the rapid event a day ago.

With another nine rounds remaining, Humpy and Divya have enough time to catch up. They came face to face in the last round of the day with the senior avenging her loss in the final round of the rapid event.

Russian Polina Shuvalova is on 4.5 points, while fourth seed Irina Krush of the United States and B. Savitha Shri have four points each. Shuvalova must be disappointed with the way the day ended for her, losing her last two games to Divya and Harika.

She had been looking in good nick after posting wins over Ju – the first defeat over the last three days for the formidable Chinese woman – defending champion Anna Ushenina of Ukraine and Krush.

What happened with Divya was the reverse: she began with three losses, drew the following two games and won three in a row.

The results: (Indians unless specified):

Ninth round:

Koneru Humpy 5 bt Divya Deshmukh 5; Ju Wenjun (Chn) 6.5 bt Anna Ushenina (Ukr) 3.5; Irina Krush (USA) 4 bt B. Savitha Shri 4; Vantika Agrawal 3.5 bt Nino Batsiashvili (Geo) 2.5; Polina Shuvalova (FIDE) 4.5 lost to Dronavalli Harika 6.5.

Eighth round:

Divya bt Shuvalova; Harika drew with Vantika; Batsiashvili lost to Krush; Savitha lost to Ju; Ushenina bt Humpy.

Seventh round:

Ushenina lost to Divya; Humpy lost to Savitha; Ju bt Batsiashvili; Krush drew with Harika; Vantika drew with Shuvalova.