FIDE Grand Swiss: Arjun downs Jumabayev to be in joint lead

Extending his fine run, Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Jumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot with two others at FIDE’s Grand Swiss, here on Monday.

With four points in his kitty from a possible five, Arjun is sharing the top spot with second seed American Hikaru Nakamura and Russian Andrey Esipenko who is playing under the FIDE flag.

Nakamura defeated Alexey Sarana of Serbia and Esipenko played out a draw with top seed Fabiano Caruana of United States.

Typical of his style, Arjun went for a razor sharp position out of a Ruy Lopez as white and Jumabayev obliged by accepting the challenge.

The Kazakh Grandmaster sacrificed a couple of pawns even as queens got traded and got compensation with his active pieces. Arjun in the end capitalised on a final blunder and won after 69 moves.

As many as sixteen players, including Vidit Gujrathi, trail the three leaders with 3.5 points each to their credit.

Gujrathi’s three-game winning streak was halted by Russian Evgeniy Najer who drew as white against the Indian.

Top rated Indian D Gukesh’s chances for a podium finish almost ended after he succumbed to a loss against compatriot S L Narayanan.

This was Narayanan’s second victory over Gukesh in about two weeks, earlier being in the Qatar Masters that concluded prior to this event.

It was a King’s Indian defense by Gukesh and Narayanan went for opposite side castling inviting complications. Both players went for attacking the king but Narayanan’s coordination proved stronger.

Gukesh lost a couple of pawns in the eventual rook and minor pieces and did not get another chance to recover.

In other notable matches involving Indians, P Harikrishna drew with Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine and the all Indian-duel between Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sareen also reached a deadlock while Raunak Sadhwani was on the receiving end against Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran.

In the women’s event being held simultaneously, R Vaishali continued with her dream run and drew with higher-ranked Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine to an easy draw.

After defeating Anan’s sister Mariya in the previous round, Vaishali did not get any real chance as Anna played it safe as black out of a Ruy Lopez opening. The pieces got traded at regular intervals as the player arrived at a drawn Bishop and pawns endgame.

With four out of a possible five, Vaishali now shares the second spot with Anna and top seeded Russian Alexandra Goryachkina. Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan shot into sole lead on 4.5 points defeating Tan Zhongyi of China.

Amongst other Indians in the fray, D Harika bounced back with a victory to reach 2.5 points at the expense of Divya Deshmukh while B Savitha Shri and Vantika Agarwal drew with Mai Narva of Estonia and Alexandra Kosteniuk of Switzerland respectively.

The sixth Indian in the fray – Tania Sachdev scored over Oliwia Kiolbasa of Poland.

Important and Indian results round 5 (Indians unless specified):

Andrey Esipenko (Fid, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 3.5); Hikaru Nakamura (usa, 4) beat Alexey Sarana (Srb, 3); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 3.5) drew with Hans Moke Niemann (Usa, 3.5); Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 3.5) drew with Yu Yangyi (Chn, 3.5); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5) drew with Alexandr Predke (Srb, 3.5); Evgeniy Najer (Fid, 3.5) drew with Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (3.5); Arjun Erigaisi (4) beat Rinat Jumabayev (Kaz, 3); Ramazan Zhalmakhanov (Kaz, 3.5) drew with Samuel Sevian (Usa, 3.5); Erwin L’ami (Ned, 3.5) drew with Vladislav Artemiev (Fid, 3.5); Aravindh Chithambaram (3) drew with Nihal Sarin (3); S L Narayanan (3) beat D Gukesh (2); R Praggnanandhaa (2.5) drew with Sandro Mareco (Arg, 2.5); Ruslan Ponomariov (Ukr, 2.5) drew with P Harikrishna (2.5); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 3) beat Raunak Sadhwani (2); Amin Bassem (Egy, 2) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (2); Adam Kozak (Hun, 1.5) lost to Aryan Chopra (2.5); Shreyas Royal (Eng, 2) drew with Murali Karthikeyan (2); Wu Li (Iom, 0.5) lost to B Adhiban (1.5).

Women: Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 3.5) lost to Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 4.5); R Vaishali (4) drew with Anna Muzychuk (4); Aleksandra Goryachkina (Fid, 4) beat Meruert Kamalidenova (Kaz, 3); Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mgl, 3.5) drew with Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 3.5); B Savitha Shri (2.5) drew with Mai Narva (Est, 2.5); Alexandra Kosteniuk (Sui, 2) drew with Vantika Agrawal (2); Divya Deshmukh (1.5) lost to D Harika (2.5) Tania Sachdev (2) beat Oliwia Kiolbasa (Pol, 1.5).