New Delhi: India’s R Vaishali strengthened her position at the top of the standings in the Women’s FIDE Candidates tournament on Saturday with a crucial win over Aleksandra Goryachkina in Round 11.
Playing with the black pieces, Vaishali capitalised on a costly mistake by her opponent. The error led to a trapped rook, forcing Russian Goryachkina to concede the game. The win helped Vaishali move to seven points from 11 rounds, maintaining her lead with only three rounds remaining, according to fide.com.
China’s Zhu Jiner and Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk remain in joint second place, one point behind the Indian leader. In another Round 11 match, Divya Deshmukh held Zhu Jiner to a draw while Muzychuk shared points with Kateryna Lagno.
In the open section, R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw against Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum with the white pieces. The result took his tally to 4.5 points.
Tournament leader Javokhir Sindarov also settled for a draw in a hard-fought game against Fabiano Caruana. Sindarov now has 8.5 points from 11 rounds and remains in a strong position. Anish Giri, currently second with 6.5 points, drew his match against Andrey Esipenko.
Elsewhere, Hikaru Nakamura and China’s Wei Yi also played out a draw in their Round 11 encounter.
With the tournament entering its final phase, Vaishali holds a narrow but significant advantage in the race for the title.
