Asian Chess Championship: Tenacious Praggnanandhaa shares four-way lead; Nandhidhaa stays ahead

With two rounds to go, overnight leader Harsha Bharathakoti, Koustav Chatterjee and Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov moved ahead before Praggnanandhaa joined them.

R. Praggnanandhaa outsmarted his sparring partner and two-time former National champion M. Karthikeyan to share the lead with three others at 5.5 points. (FILE PHOTO) | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ

In a marathon battle lasting 137 moves spread over six hours, R. Praggnanandhaa outsmarted his sparring partner and two-time former National champion M. Karthikeyan to share the lead with three others at 5.5 points after seven rounds of the Asian chess championship here on Tuesday.

With two rounds to go, overnight leader Harsha Bharathakoti, Koustav Chatterjee and Uzbekistan’s Shamsiddin Vokhidov moved ahead before Praggnanandhaa joined them.

In the women’s section, P. V. Nandhidhaa (6) saw her overnight one-point lead shrink by half after holding former champion Padmini Rout. N. Priyanka (5.5) moved to the second spot by beating Uzbek Nilufar Yakubbaeva.

Soumya Swaminathan (5), extremely lucky to beat Nisha Mohota, moved to the third spot with National champion Divya Deshmukh and Padmini.

Leading seventh-round results (Indians unless stated):

Open: S. L. Narayanan (5) drew with Harsha Bharathakoti (5.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (5.5) bt M. Karthikeyan (4.5); S. P. Sethuraman (4.5) lost to Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 5.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (4.5) lost to Koustav Chatterjee (5.5); B. Adhiban (5) drew with Saparmyrat Atabayev (Tkm, 5); Makstat Atabayev (5) drew with Leon Mendonca (5); Aditya Mittal (4.5) drew with Abhimanyu Puranik (4.5); Raja Rithvik (4.5) drew with V. Pranav (4.5); Sammed Shetty (4.5) drew with Shyam Sundar (4.5); Arystanbek Urazayev (Kaz, 4) lost to Karthik Venkataraman (5);Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 4) drew with M. Pranesh (4.5).

Women: P. V. Nandhidhaa (6) drew with Padmini Rout (5); Nilufar Yakubbaeva (Uzb, 4) lost to N. Priyanka (5.5); Mary Ann Gomes (4.5) drew with Vantika Agrawal (4.5); Rakshitta Ravi (4) lost to Divya Deshmukh (5); Nguyen Thi Mai Hung (Vie, 4.5) drew with Vo Thi Kim Phung (Vie, 4.5); Soumya Swaminathan (5) bt Nisha Mohota (4); Tania Sachdev (4) drew with Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 4); C. Sahajasri (4.5) bt Saina Salonika (3.5); Srija Seshadri (4) drew with Amina Kairbekova (Kaz, 4); Sakshi Chitlange (3.5) lost to Kiran Manisha Mohanty (4.5); Srishti Pandey (3.5) lost to Eesha Karavade (4).