Samarkand (Uzbekistan), Sep 15: Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali won the FIDE Women’s Grand Swiss for the second time in a row and made it to the women’s Candidates tournament after a hard-fought draw against former world champion Zhongyi Tan of China in the 11th and final round here on Monday.
Russian Kateryna Lagno played out a draw fairly quickly with Ulviyya Fataliyeva of Azerbaijan to end at the top of the table, along with Vaishali, on eight points out of a possible 11. Lagno became the other qualifier for the Candidates, apart from Vaishali, from here.
Vaishali had a little better tie-break score to win the tournament as she played with much higher ranked Zhongyi.
The Indian GM had also won the tournament in 2023 in Isle of Man, United Kingdom. Her victory here signifies that the Indian women are also going to hog the limelight like their male counterparts soon.
Vaishali won six, lost one and drew the remaining four games and her tie-break on average rating of opponents proved just one point more than that of Lagno. The victory means that the siblings, Vaishali and Praggnanandhaa will be again making it to the Candidates, the final frontier to challenge the world champion.
None of the other Indians in the FIDE Grand Swiss could make it to the Candidates, that is reserved for eight players in all and two from here.
Anish Giri was the winner in the open section as he crushed Hans Moke Niemann of United States.
Anish finished the tournament on eight points out of a possible 11 too and most likely Matthias Bluebaum is going to finish second and make it to the Candidates.
As things stand right now, Anish Giri and Matthias Bluebaum (from this tournament), Hikaru Nakamura of United States (on rating), R Praggnanadhaa (on his tournament circuit performance) and Fabiano Caruana of United States will make it to the Candidates.
The last three spots will be filled in from the World Chess Cup to be held in Goa next month. The winner of the Candidates will challenge reigning world champion D Gukesh. (PTI)
