Carlsen manages to take sole lead despite a disappointing day

Blitz chess tournament updates: Carlsen in a lost position, Praggnanandhaa in second place, and Lagno leading the women's event.

You expect strange things to happen in blitz chess.

Still, you wouldn’t quite expect to find Magnus Carlsen in a lost position by the 12th move, especially after he had been massacring the opposition and winning a tournament by two points just a day earlier. He played just eight more moves against Arjun Erigaisi before resigning in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Chess India blitz tournament on Saturday.

The World No. 1 from Norway then survived a scare against another Indian rival, Vidit Gujrathi, before managing a draw from an inferior position. He thus was still in the sole lead position after nine rounds at the Dhano Dhanyo Auditorium.

Carlsen, who had to pay a heavy price for blundering with his queen when a simple pawn push was required on that 12th move of his, is on 6.5 points. He is half-a-point ahead of the second-placed R. Praggnanandhaa, who had an extraordinary day: he lost his first three games and then won the next six in a row.

Arjun and Daniil Dubov of Russia have 5.5 points each. Another nine rounds remain.

There is a clear leader in the women’s event too. Kateryna Lagno has seven points, one more than Valentina Gunina. Aleksandra Goryachkina is lying third with five points, making it a 1-2-3 for Russia in the leaders’ table. Divya Deshmukh, Vantika Agrawal and Koneru Humpy have made it 4-5-6 for India; they should, of course, be hoping to improve those places on Monday, the final day of the tournament.

The results (Men):