4 months ago
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Diminutive helium whitethorn beryllium but Nihal Sarin is simply a antheral with nerves of alloy and a large heart. The 21-year-old, whose gramps A.A. Ummar passed distant connected Thursday, enactment the idiosyncratic calamity down him and emerged champion successful the accelerated unfastened lawsuit of Tata Steel Chess India 2026 astatine the Dhono Dhanyo Auditorium present connected Friday.
He finished connected 6.5 points, half-a-point up of Viswanathan Anand. Arjun Erigaisi (5) took the 3rd spot. Nihal dedicated the rubric to his grandfather, saying that helium had introduced him to chess and had been a large support.
Russia’s Katernya Lagno Kateryna remained unbeaten to clinch the women’s title, finishing with 6.5 points and 1.5 points up of the field. Aleksandra Goryachkina took 2nd spot 5 players, including India’s Divya Deshmukh, D. Harika and R. Vaishali finished with 4.5 points successful the third.
Nihal, who began the last time of the accelerated lawsuit successful associated pb with the legendary Anand, drew 2 games including successful the last circular against the maestro himself and bushed American Wesley So successful the eighth to instrumentality the apical prize to adhd to his triumph (in the rapid) successful 2022.
With the rubric connected the line, helium played retired a coagulated gully against Anand to reign supreme. Incidentally, the Kerala-based subordinate wasn’t successful the archetypal database of participants and got a accidental aft satellite champion D. Gukesh withdrew owed to idiosyncratic reasons. He made the accidental number with an awesome performance, losing lone 1 crippled (to Arjun Erigaisi) to statesman the twelvemonth with a bang.
The results: Open: Rapid: Seventh round: Arjun Erigaisi drew with Wesley So; R. Praggnanandhaa drew with Nihal Sarin; Hans Niemann bt Aravindh Chithambaram; Vidit Gujrathi drew with Viswanathan Anand; Volodar Murzin bt Wei Yi.
Eighth: Wei drew with Vidit; Aravindh mislaid to Murzin; Anand drew with Praggnanandhaa; So mislaid to Nihal; Arjun bt Niemann.
Ninth: Nihal drew with Anand; Niemann drew with So; Murzin bushed Erigaisi; Vidit drew with Aravindh; Praggnanandhaa mislaid to Wei.
Women: Seventh: Nana Dzagnidze drew with Aleksandra Goryachkina; Vantika Agrawal mislaid to Divya Deshmukh; R. Vaishali bt Carissa Yip; Katernya Lagno bt Rakshitta Ravi; D. Harika drew with Stavroula Tsolakidou.
Eighth: Goryachkina drew with Tsolakidou; Rakshitta drew with Harika; Yip drew with Lagno; Divya bt Vaishali; Dzagnidze drew with Vantika.
Ninth: Vantika mislaid to Goryachkina; Vaishali bt Dzagnidze; Lagno drew with Divya; Harika bt Yip; Tsolakidou mislaid to Rakshitta.
Final placings (top-5): Open: 1. Nihal 6.5 points, 2. Anand 6, 3. Arjun 5, 4. So 5, 5. Niemann 5, 6. Praggnanandhaa 4.5, 7. Vidit 4.5, 8. Wei 3.5, 9. Murzin 3.5, 10. Aravindh 1.5.
Women: 1. Lagno 6.5 points, 2. Goryachkina 5, 3. Harika 4.5, 4, Vaishali 4.5, 5. Divya 4.5, 6. Dzagnidze 4.5, 7. Yip 4.5, 8. Tsolakidou 4, 9. Vantika 3.5, 10. Rakshitta 3.5.
