Grand Swiss Tournament: K Sasikiran in second place after draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave

Riga: Indian Grandmaster K Sasikiran played out a draw with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the seventh round of the open event in the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament to share the second spot with two others. Former national champion Sasikiran, who is unbeaten after seven rounds, held the Frenchman in 30 moves in a Sicilian Byrne variation game. He is on five points and is in joint second place with Vachier-Lagrave and Alexei Shirov of Spain. Sasikiran will next meet leader Alireza Firouzja in the eighth round. GM Nihal Sarin drew with Gabriel Sargissian of Armenia to move up to 4.5 points while P Harikrishna, the highest rated Indian in the event, beat Russia’s Maksim Chigaev to join his compatriot on 4.5 points. Young GM Arjun Erigaisi was the only other Indian player to secure a win, as he defeated Vadim Zvjaginsev of Russia. Other Indians in fray – R Praggnandhaa, D Gukesh, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, S P Sethuraman and B Adhiban – all settled for draws while Raunak Sadhwani went down against Alexandr Predke. Naturalised Frenchman Alireza Firouzja posted a win over Evgeniy Najer of Russia to take his tally to 5.5 points and is half a point clear of the rest of the field. In the women’s event, Indian ace Dronavalli Harika is in joint third spot with 4.5 points after a draw with Jolanta Zawadzka of Poland in the seventh round. Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh won against Carolina Lujan of Argentina and England’s Jovanka Houska respectively, while R Vaishali drew with Monika Socko of Poland. Agrawal is on four points while Deshmukh has three and Vaishali is on 3.5 points. Padmini Rout, who lost to Karina Cyfka, has two points. Ten Indian men and five women feature in the tournament. The Grand Swiss Tournament and Women’s Grand Swiss 2021 are part of the qualifications for the 2021-23 World Championship cycle. The top two finishers will qualify for the Candidates Tournament 2022.