Asian Chess C'ships: Vantika, Priyanka, Rakshitta claim second straight win

The Indian chess players continued to impress on the second day of the Asian Individual Chess Championship in Al Ain, UAE, as 9 Indian players maintained a perfect record on Thursday.

In the women's category, Vantika Agrawal, Priyanka Nutakki, and Rakshitta Ravi had their second consecutive wins, while in the men's category, Ilamparthi, Murali K, and V Praneeth secured their second straight wins.

Nihal and Pranav back on winning ways

On the other hand, top seed Nihal Sarin has also returned to winning ways, taking a solid win over Nikita Matinian of Russia. Sarin, having 1.5/2 points, is currently out of the top 10 positions on the leaderboard.

In addition, world junior chess champion V Pranav also bounced back after a tough loss in the first round. Having white pieces, he defeated Sajid Sakline Mostafa of Bangladesh in the second round.

The competition will get more intense in the coming days, as currently, 11 players in the open category and the 14 in the women's category have a perfect record of 2/2 wins, and the third round will begin on Friday.

The Asian Individual Chess Championship is a vital event for many as they aim to solidify their standings in the global chess community. Also, the top 10 players in each category will qualify for the World Cup.

Notable Round 2 Results:

Nihal Sarin (India) defeated Nikita Matinian (FIDE)

Ilamparthi A R (India) defeated Amin Tabatabaei (Iran)

Murali Karthikeyan (India) defeated Yiping Lou (China)

V Pranav (India) defeated Sajid Sakline Mostafa (Bangladesh)

Leon Mendonca (India) won against Aditya Bagus Arfan (Indonesia)