Former world rapid champion Koneru Humpy stayed in contention for the women’s World rapid chess championship by scoring 3.5 points from four rounds for a tally of 6.5 from eight rounds and shared the second spot at Samarkand (Uzbekistan) on Wednesday.
With three rounds to go, the 2019 champion was in the company of China’s Zhao Mo and within half a point of the surprise Russian leader Anastasia Bodnaruk, seeded 51.
In the open category, where Magnus Carlsen, Vladislav Fedoseev and Yu Yangyi led at seven points, Bharath Subramanium, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujarathi were among the 13 players sharing the fourth spot at 6.5 points.
Bharath – seeded a distant 137 in a field of 202 – continued his impressive run. Following his unbeaten run on the first day, the youngster defeated senior teammate Sandipan Chanda, lost to Yu Yangyi, drew with R. Praggnanandhaa and defeated Italy’s Sabino Brunello.
Strangely, Arjun played with all three second-day leaders. He drew Yu Yangyi and Carlsen but lost to Fedoseev before beating Armenia’s Robert Hovhannisyan.
Eighth seed Humpy, in the 50th spot after her second-round loss on Tuesday, rallied brilliantly to win five straight rounds including the one against sixth-round leader Mo Zhai to share the lead after seven rounds. She had good chances to stretch her winning sequence after reaching a better position against China’s Lei Tingjie before the game ended in a draw.
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N. Priyanka proved the best Indian on view when she won all four rounds of the day to be placed 10th. Her victims included teammates R. Vaishali, V. Sarayu, former World champion Zhu Chen and Russia’s Valentina Gunina, a four-time Russian Women’s champion.
In contrast, Aravindh Chithambaram shockingly lost all four rounds and slipped to the last position among the Indians.
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