World blitz chess | Vaishali, Humpy brighten medal hopes
The Hindu
Arjun wins six games; Gukesh recovers from bad start
R. Vaishali and K. Humpy kept India’s medal hopes alive by holding the second and the third spots after nine rounds of the Women’s World blitz chess championship at Warsaw, Poland, on Wednesday. Riding a high of four-win streak after upstaging former World champion Mariya Muzychuk, sixth seed Valentina Gunina and scoring over the 2019 World junior girls champion Polina Shuvalova, 21st seed Vaishali (7.5 points) plays the surprise leader from Kazakhstan, Bibisara Assaubayeva (8).
Humpy, seeded three, will take on fifth seed and recently-crowned World rapid champion Alexandra Kosteniuk, having beaten her seventh seed Russian compatriot Aleksandra Goryachkina in the previous round. Seven rounds remain in the competition. Each player gets three minutes plus a two-second increment per move to finish the game.
In the open section, 10th seed Arjun Erigaisi comfortably proved equal to Magnus Carlsen in the 12th round to reach 8.5 points. Placed 12th, this highest-rated Indian in the fray at 2765 won six games. Levon Aronian, seeded 15, led with 10 points while favourite Carlsen was eighth with 8.5 points.
As speculation over the continuation of Minister for Scheduled Tribes Welfare B. Nagendra in the Cabinet persisted, with the demand for his resignation raised by the BJP in connection with the ₹94 crore scam at the Maharshi Valmiki Scheduled Tribes Development Corporation, his Cabinet colleagues came to his defence on Thursday.