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R Vaishali lost her sole lead after going down to Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan in the women’s section.
IMAGE: Indian GM Nihal Sarin and Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum shook hands after a mere 21 moves. Photograph: Michal Walusza/FIDE
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin played out a quick and effortless draw with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany to share the lead with the German on six points after the end of the eighth round of FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
On the day when R Vaishali lost her sole lead after going down to Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan in the women’s section, the other defending champion Vidit Gujrathi also met his nemesis in Vincent Keymer of Germany.
Kateryna Lagno of Russia made most of her white pieces and defeated Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine.
Lagno took her tally to 6.5 points out of a possible eight and is now a half point ahead of Assaubayeva, Vaishali and Yuxin Song of China who all have six points apiece.
Nihal opted for the Queen’s gambit accepted with his black pieces and did not face any tough challenge from Bluebaum.
The German has played some exemplary chess in this event but in the eighth round he did not push hard enough. The game was drawn in a mere 21 moves as both players repeated the moves.
Vaishali was outdone in the endgame by Assaubayeva.
The Kazakh came up with an inspired performance in nearly a must-win game for her and Vaishali fumbled when she left a pawn hanging. Assaubayeva pocketed the pawn and then her technique was good enough to take the point home.
In the next round now, Vaishali will take on Yuxin Song in what could be the decider for her in terms of staying the course for an encore.
Important and Indian results round 8 open (Indians unless specified): Matthias Bluebaum (Ger, 6) drew with Nihal Sarin (6); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5.5) drew with Hans Moke Niemann (Usa, 5.5); Abhimanyu Mishra (Usa, 5.5) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 5.5); Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 5.5) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 5.5); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 5.5) beat Vidit Gujrathi (5); Richard Rapport (Hun, 5) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (5); Shant Sargsyan (Arm, 5) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (5); Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid, 5) drew with V Pranav (5); Abhimanyu Puranik (4.5) drew with Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 4.5); P Harikrishna (3.5) lost to Anton Guijarro David (Esp, 4.5); Volodar Murzin (Fid, 4) drew with Leon Luke Mendonca (4); Aditya Mittal (3.5) playing Raunak Sadhwani (3.5); Shamsiddin Vokhidov (4) drew with S L Narayanan (4); D Gukesh (3) playing Divya Deshmukh (3.5); Etienne Bacrot (Fra, 3.5) drew with Aryan Chopra (3.5); Murali Karthikeyan (3.5) beat Jaime Santos Latasa (Esp, 2.5).
Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz, 6) beat R Vaishali (6); Kateryna Lagno (Fid, 6.5) beat Mariya Muzychuk (Ukr, 5); Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul, 5) lost to Yuxin Song (Chn, 6); Tan Zhongyi (Chn, 5.5) beat Tsolakidou Stavroula (Gre, 4.5); D Harika (4.5) drew with Olga Girya (Fid, 4.5); Dinara Wagner (Ger, 4.5) drew with Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 4.5); Vantika Agrawal (3.5) lost to Polina Shuvalova (Fid, 4.5).
