Paphos

Indianchess sensation Divya Deshmukh pulled off a superb turnaround converting what looked like a certain draw into victory to climb into joint lead, while compatriot R Praggnanandhaa saw his title hopes take a major hit after a loss against Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri in the eighth round, leaving him almost out of contention for a top finish in the Candidates tournament here.

In the women’s section, World Cup winner Deshmukh turned the tables on overnight leader Anna Muzychuk to jump into joint lead with four others including the Ukrainian on 4.5 points from what had seemed a difficult position to defend. Deshmukh did well to fight on and equalise and then capitalised on an unforced error by her opponent in the queen-and-pawns endgame to score a vital victory.

The other Indian, R. Vaishali drew with Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan to join Deshmukh, Kateryna Lagno of Ukraine, China’s Zhu Jiner and Muzychuk in the lead on 4.5 points after eight games. The event is wide open now with Jiner giving a knockout blow to the hopes of her Chinese compatriot Tan Zhongyi to move to 4.5 points while Kateryna defeated fellow Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina.

On a day when Uzbek Javokhir Sindarov just decided to consolidate his lead and drew with tail-ender Andrey Esipenko of Russia in the ‘Open’ section, Praggnanandhaa, who had scored his sole victory over Giri in the first round, fell prey to some simple tactics from a seemingly equal position and lost his second game in the tournament.

Sindarov took his tally to 6.5 out of a possible eight and looks headed for victory as his lead now stands at a massive two points with six rounds remaining in the USD 700,000 prize money tournament that will also select the next challenger for reigning world champion D. Gukesh in the world championship match slated later this year.