With another impressive performance, K. Sasikiran caught world number 10 Maxim Vachier-Lagrave in 30 moves to reach five points from round seven of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Chess Tournament in Riga, Latvia, on Wednesday.
Playing white, Sashikiran gave nothing and the players followed a threefold repetition of the moves. Sashikiran’s next-round rival Alireza Firoza (5.5 points) defeated Evgeny Najer to extend his half-point lead.
P. Harikrishna joined Nihal Sarin with 4.5 points after beating Maksim Chigaev of Russia. Sarin played a draw with Gabriel Sargisyan of Armenia. R. Pragyananand fought hard to avoid a draw against Peter Svidler of Russia, while Arjun Arigasi registered his second win in three rounds.
Among women, D. Harika drew for the fourth straight round. Vantika Agarwal and Divya Deshmukh registered wins on the lower boards.
Open: K. Shashikiran (5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5); Gabriel Sargesian (arm, 4.5) drew with Nihal Sarin (4.5); P. Harikrishna (4.5) bt Maxim Chigaev (Rus, 3.5); Raunak Sadhwani (3.5) lost to Alexander Predke (Russia, 4.5); Peter Svidler (Russia, 3) by R. drew with Pragnananda (3.5); Mihail Antipov (Rus, 3) draws with D. Gukesh (3); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (3) drew with Nijat Abasov (AZ, 3); Arjuna Erigasi (3.5) bt Vadim Zvjaginsev (Rus, 2.5); B. Adhiban (2.5) drew with Kirill Georgiev (MKD, 2.5); Shamdin Vokhidov (Uzb, 2.5) drew with SP Sethuraman (2.5).
Women: Jolanta Zwadzka (pole, 4.5) drew with D. Harika (4.5); Monica Soko (Pol, 3.5) won the R. drew with Vaishali (3.5); Vantika Agarwal (4) bt Carolina Lujan (Arg, 2.5); Padmini Raut (2) lost to Karina Sifka (Pol, 3); Jovanka Hauska (Eng, 2) lost to Divya Deshmukh (3).
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