Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Sep 12: Grandmaster Nihal Sarin halted Parham Maghsoodloo’s unbeaten run with a brilliant victory to join the leaders after the seventh round of the FIDE Grand Swiss here, while R Vaishali also regained sole lead in the women’s section.
However, world champion D Gukesh’s struggles continued as he slumped to a third straight defeat here on Thursday, this time against Turkey’s Ediz Gurel, slipping out of contention and down to 10th in the live world rankings with four rounds still to play.
Vaishali, a winner in the previous edition held in Isle of Man in United Kingdom, outclassed her Chinese counterpart in the seventh round and now sits half a point behind Russian Kateryna Lagno.
The day however belonged to Sarin who came up with some exemplary display on both flanks.
The Queen pawn opening as white worked well for Nihal as he was able to push for an advantage with little at stake and Maghsoodloo erred in calculation when it really mattered. Nihal set up a brilliant finish and handed Maghsoodloo his first loss in the tournament.
With the victory Nihal shot into joint lead along with Germany’s Bluebaum who defeated higher ranked Indian Arjun Erigaisi. (PTI)
