Top seed Koneru Humpy could not get the better of Shen Yang's defence and settled for her second draw on the trot to slip to the joint third place after four rounds in the IS Bank Ataturk Women Grand Prix chess tournament now in progress in Istanbul.
Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh was welcomed by hundreds of supporters and her family upon her arrival in Nagpur on Wednesday.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa faces a tough challenge at the Candidates Tournament, where he will compete against top players for the chance to challenge for the World Championship title.
Grandmasters K Sasikiran and Koneru Humpy gave India a resounding start on the first day of the 15th Asian Games.
The top seed needs just a victory tomorrow against Kruttika Nadig of Maharashtra to clinch the Nat. A women's chess title.\n\n
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen recorded a flawless performance, securing victories against S L Narayanan
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa faces challenges at the Candidates chess tournament after a strong start, while Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov emerges as a formidable contender.
Dronavalli Harika and Koneru Humpy came up with fine individual performances to win a silver and a bronze, respectively.
Top seeded Grandmaster Koneru tried her best but could not breach Zhao Xue's defence and drew a tense game to remain joint third after the ninth round of the IS Bank Ataturk Women Grand Prix chess event in Istanbul.
Vaishali, sister of the Indian chess prodigy and GM R Praggnanandhaa, scored impressive victories over Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) and Russia's Valentina Gunina on the opening day of the Blitz championship.
WGM Zhao Xue of China emerged sole leader after the seventh round in the World junior chess championships.
India's former World Rapid Chess Champion Koneru Humpy highlighted the need to organise more chess events for women in the country to ensure a greater pool of players.
R. Vaishali, the newly-crowned Candidates champion, exemplifies quiet intensity and strong values, nurtured by a supportive family, as she prepares for the World Championship showdown against Ju Wenjun.
World Blitz: Erigaisi stuns Carlsen, Abdusattorov to emerge joint leader after 11 rounds
Kerala teenager Krishna Goutham shares the lead with World No 1 Magnus Carlsen, top Indian exponent Arjun Erigaisi, and Vladislav Artemiev.
'Most of my birthdays I end up losing the game, so glad it did not repeat in the classical. When I was playing, I felt fine, but when I was losing, I was like, 'ok, not again'.
Deshmukh thanked the CM and the people of Nagpur for felicitating her.
In the women's event, Koneru Humpy and D Harika posted wins in the fifth round after a below par showing on the second day of the competition on Monday.
While only one place seems assured for the Indians in the men's section, there are already three in the women's category who have made it to the Candidates.
Norway Chess has consistently innovated to enhance the experience for players and fans, introducing features like the 'confession box' and the Armageddon tie-break to make elite chess more engaging and decisive.
Grandmaster R Vaishali was so crestfallen following seven straight losses in the Chennai Grandmasters that she had made up her mind to pull out of the Grand Swiss tournament, but family support steered her to the event where she won the title to qualify for the Candidates next year.
Another game to end through repetition of moves was between Gukesh and Gujrathi.
Reigning World champion Dommaraju Gukesh's roller-coaster ride continues. The Indian Grandmaster suffered defeat in an Armageddon tie-break and slipped to tied-fifth place, while Arjun Erigaisi upset American world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura to maintain fourth position in the Norway Chess tournament.
With Vantika's hard-earned victory there are still five Indians left in the last 32 stage of this US$691,250 prize money event with an additional bonus of making it to the Women's candidates' tournament slated in 2026 for the top three finishers.
Gukesh follows in the footsteps of Anand, the only other Indian to win the Candidates
International Master Divya Deshmukh stormed into the final, defeating former world champion Zhongyi Tan of China in the second game of the semifinals and winning the mini-match 1.5-0.5 in the FIDE Women's World Chess Cup in Batumi, Georgia, on Wednesday.
Koneru Humpy's non-participation in the event has not hampered the team's chances much as Vaishali has jumped significantly in rankings and is a force to reckon with in the women's circle.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa lost to World Champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tie-breaker after the two played out a draw under normal time control in the second round.
Five-time World champion Magnus Carlsen clinched his seventh Norway Chess title after American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana did a good turn by defeating D Gukesh.
Reigning classical World champion D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi and world No.1 Magnus Carlsen were among the leaders after the first five rounds on the opening day of the FIDE World Rapid Championships in Doha on Thursday.
'Right now, I'm happy with the game that I played today. Tomorrow (Friday), hopefully, another good game I can play. And whatever the result will be, we'll see later. But yeah, just focusing on playing the game.'
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored a massive, hard-earned victory over world number two Fabiano Caruana of the United States and made his way to the top 10 of world rankings after the end of fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger.
World champion D Gukesh climbed to a career-high No 3 ranking, while compatriot R Praggnanandhaa broke back into the top 10 in the latest FIDE classical ratings released on Saturday.
Back in chess just before the Olympiad after a nearly two-year hiatus, Humpy, who has been among the top women players for a long time, will now have to wait for another two years to have a go at the next world championship cycle.
Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh has revealed that navigating the pressure in a long, gruelling tournament like the FIDE Women's World Cup title was "quite stressful" but she was determined to go all the way after the tough matches in the lead-up to the title clash against Koneru Humpy in Batumi, Georgia, recently.
Reigning World champion D Gukesh finally got his revenge on Magnus Carlsen as he pounced on a blunder by the World No 1 to defeat him for the first time in a classical game.
Russians Volodar Murzin and Alexander Grischuk, along with Duda Jan-Kryzstof of Poland, share the lead with Arjun on seven points after the end of the second day and Round 9 of the championship, which will decide the best player of the planet after 13 games.
Praggnanandhaa takes on a strong field at Grand Swiss, eyes Candidates berth
