Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali
Credit: PTI Photo
Stavanger (Norway): In sole lead with a comfortable advantage of 2.5 points, Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali will take on Tingjie Lei of China in the fifth round of the Norway chess tournament here.
Having amassed 8.5 points from the first four rounds, Vaishali is ahead of women's world champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine in the USD 1,61,000 prize money tournament.
With each win under Classical time control worth three points here, Vaishali has largely benefitted from victories over compatriot Koneru Humpy and veteran Pia Cramling.
Her first-round loss, under the Armageddon time control, to Ju did not hamper the spirits as Vaishali bounced back quite easily.
Ju has scored four victories under Armageddon after drawing four games under Classical time control. Each win under Armageddon is worth 1.5 points and the Chinese as of now seems invincible.
Humpy has not been at her best and her high point so far has been a win over Teingjie Lei.
The loss against Vaishali was quite demoralising and against Muzychuk also a similar result did not do much good.
Yet, knowing her comeback skills, Humpy cannot be ruled out as a single win under Classical time control can change the standings upside down.
In the men's section, Praggnanadhaa was the star pick after his first ever victory over world number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the third round but a subsequent loss to American Hikaru Nakamura left him fourth in the six-player list.
A loss and a win under Armageddon and a loss and a win under Classical has been the report card of the Indian talent thus far and he will need to be better in order to have a chance to win this event.
Nakamura leads the men's section with seven points and is half a point ahead of Frenchman Firouzja Alireza.
Carlsen is on six points, half a point ahead of Praggnanandhaa who in turn enjoys a half point lead over his next-round opponent Fabiano Caruana.
Surprisingly bottom-placed here is reigning world champion Ding Liren of China who is clearly not in his best form here.
Pairings round 5:
Men: R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5) vs Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 5); Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) vs Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 7); Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 6) vs Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 6.5).
Women: R Vaishali (Ind, 8.5) vs Tingjie Lei (Chn, 5); Wenjun Ju (Chn, 6) vs Koneru Humpy (Ind, 3); Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 6) vs Pia Cramling (Swe, 3).