Chess
FIDE Women’s Grand Prix: Indian GM R Vaishali loses to Mariya Muzchuk
With this loss, Vaishali slipped to the 9th position and will be eyeing a comeback in the last four rounds at the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix in Tbilisi.
Vaishali blundered under time pressure and ended up losing the game to Mariya Muzychuk. ( Photo credit: Anna Shtourman/FIDE)
Indian Grandmaster (GM) R Vaishali, on Sunday, suffered a loss in round five of the 2024 Tbilisi FIDE Women’s Grand Prix against the former women’s world champion GM Mariya Muzychuk.
While GM Vaishali dominated the game, she blundered a rook in the last minutes which cost her the game as the Ukrainian didn’t give any chance for respite and won the game comfortably after that.
After the end of these proceedings, GM Mariya Muzychuk, GM Nana Dzagnidze, IM Stavroula Tsolakidou, and IM Bibisara Assaubayeva jointly lead the first leg of the Grand Prix with three points to their name.
After Sunday's loss, Vaishali slipped to the 9th position. But she remains in contention for a top-3 finish.
Tbilisi also saw two more decisive games during the fifth round as GM Dzagnidze went past GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in a tactical end-game as Alexandra was left with no option after Dzagnidze's brilliant replies.
The other winner was Iran-born IM Sara Khadem, who currently lives and represents Spain. Sara was experiencing an underwhelming tournament until the fifth round, scoring just 0.5/4.0. All it took was a mistake from her opponent IM Lela Javakhishvili for Sara to capitalise and win the match convincingly.
Tuesday is a rest day at the Tbilisi Grand Prix and the action of round six will begin on the 21st of August at 4:30 PM IST.
Vaishali will play with the black pieces against the Polish IM Alina Kashlinskaya in the sixth round of the event.
