On Tuesday, March 31, India ends day three with another major draw in the women’s event. 20-year-old grandmaster Divya Deshmukh finished her match in a draw against Aleksandra Goryachkina. This was her third consecutive draw in the FIDE Women’s Candidates tournament.
In Round three played against Goryachkina, Divya got a bit of a disadvantage in the rook-pawn endgame of a Sicilian Defence. She tried to keep her up and not lose under pressure. Goryachkina made a few errors which led them to exchange positions and result in a draw.
Earlier in the opening round, Deshmukh ended in a draw against Anna Muzychuk followed by her Indian compatriot Rameshbabu Vaishali in round 2.
Meanwhile, also ended with her third consecutive draw that day while facing Ukraine’s Anna Muzychuk. Both players maintained their accuracy above 98% and are currently tied in third place with 1.5 points. Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva and Russia’s Kateryna Lagno are currently the leading women chess players of the tournament.
India’s male GM Praggnanandhaa faced his first defeat in the third round of the tournament against Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov.
The match saw Praggnanandhaa struggling from immense pressure against Sindarov in the Queen’s Gambit Declined Variation. The Uzbekistani could not find a breakthrough in the position. Meanwhile, Pragg made a major error leaving a bishop hanging. This gave Sindarov the advantage and to close out the game after 40 moves.
With this defeat, Praggnanandhaa has now moved down to third place with 1.5 points. Leading the men’s list are America’s Fabiano Caruana and Sindarov.
