World Rapid & Blitz: Raunak, Harika impress on Day 1 of rapid chess

Indian chess players had mixed results as Raunak Sadhwani and Arjun Erigaisi impressed while Koneru Humpy and R Praggnanandhaa fell behind on the opening day of the World Rapid & Blitz Championships in New York City, USA on Thursday.

The opening day of the competition was very exciting as the top players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura had an off day while the likes of Leinier Dominguez and Sadhwani impressed everyone with their play.

The 19-year-old Sadhwani caught the limelight with an upset win over France's title contender Alireza Firouzja is currently the only Indian male player in the top 5 in the open category after five rounds of play.

He did not lose a single game on the day and finished with three wins and two draws to sit at the fifth spot with four points. Now, he will face Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the sixth round.

Meanwhile, Erigiasi is closely chasing him at 12th position with the same number of points (4/5), having four wins and one loss on day 1. Whereas, Praggnanandhaa had an off day (3/5) and is currently out of the top 50.

Harika shines in the Women's category

In the women's section, Harika had an impressive outing on the day as she finished unbeaten and is currently sitting in the fourth position with 3.5/4 points.

The next best Indian in the women's section is R Vaishali in the 15th position with three points out of a possible four.

However, the Olympiad hero Vantika Agrawal and former Champion Humpy suffered a loss each and ended their day outside the top 30 with 2.5 points each.