Teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh shot into sole lead after defeating Firouzja Alireza of France in the 13th and penultimate round of Candidates' Chess tournament in Toronto on Saturday, his quest for the extraordinary placing him on the cusp of becoming the youngest ever World Championship contender.
The Indian challenge in the women's section might already have ended as Zhongyi stood firmly ahead on five points while Goryachkina had 4.5 points in her kitty.
Gukesh faced the in-vogue Italian opening as black against Caruana and the players battled it out in the main variation.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of world number three Hikaru Nakamura of United States, while R Praggnanandhaa went down to compatriot D Gukesh in the second round of Candidates chess tournament in Toronto.
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh held on to the joint top spot with Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi after they played out an easy draw in the 10th round of the Candidates chess tournament in Toronto.
Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana under Classical but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a flier and defeated Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon game in the first round of Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Tuesday.
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa had drawn their previous three encounters in this format.
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.
Gukesh to clash with Alireza on what promises to be a photo finish
Gukesh tried his hands at the Ruy Lopez as white but did not get much against Praggnanandhaa. Both the teenagers have been showing great skills here against the world's best and there was nothing to choose between them when pieces flew off the board in tandem. The game was drawn in 41 moves.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi scored crushing victories, while D Gukesh held on to the joint top spot with a draw in a brilliant sixth-round outing for the Indian men's team at the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa produced a spectacular game to get the better of fellow-Indian Vidit Gujrathi in the third round of the Candidates Chess tournament in Toronto on Saturday.
Another game to end through repetition of moves was between Gukesh and Gujrathi.
D Gukesh played out a creditable draw against top seed Fabiano Caruana but slipped a rung to the joint second position.
Apart from a place in the Candidates to be played in April next year in Canada, Vaishali got richer by US$25000 (Over Rs 20 Lakhs) while Vidit took home a whopping prize purse of US$80000 (Over Rs 66 Lakhs).
After six draws in a row, Praggnanandhaa was relieved after the victory, a result of Gupta's blunder under time pressure.
India's D Gukesh bounced back with a finely crafted game to outwit compatriot Vidit Gujrathi and regain his joint lead with Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after the eighth round in the Candidates chess tournament in Toronto on Friday.
The 17-year-old Gukesh is in joint lead with Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of Hans Moke Niemann of the United States to join the leaders' pack on 4.5 points.
Dronavalli Harika stunned world champion Ju Wenjun in the third round to grab a share of the top spot in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix
Teenaged Grandmaster D Gukesh shocked world number 5 Fabiano Caruana as India 'B' pulled off a superb 3-1 win over number 2 seeds USA in the eighth round of the Open section of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Mamallapuram, Chennai on Saturday.
The Indian team includes country's number two Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy. B Adhiban and D Harika are the the reserves members. The field for the event includes six former world champions, plus 12 others who have been Candidates to the throne at some point.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Sunday.
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
After the first game against the same opponent ended in a draw, Harika was with black pieces in the second and she employed a French defence and Kosteniuk did not have many answers.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand will lead India's charge at the online Nations Cup beginning on Tuesday, where some of the world's best players will face off amid the coronavirus pandemic which has thrown the sporting calendars out of gear. The six-team event, touted to the richest online team tournament, features all the big names in the game with World champion Magnus Carlsen being the only big gun missing from the line-up.
World rapid champion Koneru Humpy claimed her second title in the last two months by emerging triumphant at the Cairns Cup chess tournament following a draw against compatriot Dronavalli Harika in the ninth and final round, in St Louis, United States. Humpy, who was crowned World champion in December, finished the tournament with six points. The icing on the cake was that Humpy will gain five ELO rating points (the basis for international rankings) and move to second place in the world rankings.
Sankalp Gupta becomes India's 71st GM.
The Indian needs just a draw in the second game against Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia to qualify for the semis.
Harika had carried the Indian hopes nicely till the tie-breaker of the third round. However, she got a jolt in the first game of the rapid tie-break where both players had 25 minutes on their clock.
The Grand Prix consists of four legs, with a total of 21 participants. Each of the 21 players participates in three out of four Grand Prix legs. Each GP is a 16-player knockout event.
Indian Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli had to settle for the bronze medal after a heartbreaking defeat against Tan Zhongyi of China via the tie-breaker in the semi-finals of the FIDE World Women's Chess Championship in Tehran.
Vaishali fell behind early and could not catch up against Gunina, who had finished runner-up in the first leg.
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.
India went down to Rest of the World 1.5-2.5 in the second round of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup. Earlier in the opening round, India split points with USA with Humpy posting a win over Anna Zatonkish while the legendary Anand drew with the highly-rated Hikaru Nakamura.
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 Dronavalli Harika was held to a draw by Anna Muzychuk of Slovenia in the 8th round of the under 14 girls section of the World youth Chess Championships.
India suffered a double blow, losing its third and fourth round matches to Europe and top-seeded China by similar 1.5-2.5 margins, on the second day of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Wednesday. Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand came up against a strong opponent in Ding Liren and the two agreed to sign peace in 54 moves. P Harikrishna held higher-rated Yu Yangyi to a draw while long-time rivals Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan drew their game.
