Chess: India sweeps men's podium at Tata Steel Rapid; Harika wins bronze in women's

India, on Thursday, swept the podium in Men's Rapid section at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess in Kolkata. While Nihal Sarin was crowned the champion, Arjun Erigaisi and Vidit Gujrathi finished second and third respectively.

Nihal Sarin, who was unbeaten after the penultimate round and secured the title with a round to spare, lost to fellow Indian Erigaisi in the final round to finish with 6.5 points out of 9.

Erigiasi - the defending champion of the event, went into the final round against Sarin standing at the sole second position and played a brilliant game to ensure that he finished there. He ended half a point behind Nihal Sarin at 6/9.

The experienced Vidit Gujrathi, who had a shaky start to the event, recovered well towards the end to finish third with a score of 4.5/9.

This is an expectational result for the Indian contingent considering the fact that the field had some of the strongest players in the world like Hikauru Nakamura, reigning World Rapid Champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov, GM Wesley So and others in action.

Among the other Indians in action, the D Gukesh finished fifth while being equal on points with Gujrathi even as SP Sethuraman had a forgettable outing scoring just 2/9 to finish 10th.

With this win, Nihal Sarin becomes only the second Indian to win the Tata Steel Chess Rapid event after his rival and close friend Arjun Erigiasi achieved it last year. The other two winners of the Tata Steel Rapid include GM Hikaru Nakamura in 2018 and GM Magnus Carslen in 2019.

Harika wins bronze

The women's section of the rapid event saw, Harika Dronavalli finish third with a score of 5.5/9. This was the 31-year-old remained unbeaten in what was her first tournament after giving birth to a baby girl in August earlier this year.

Anna Ushenina and Nana Dzagnidze took home the gold and silver as Indian GM Koneru Humpy and IM R Vaishali finished with 5 points each at fifth and sixth position respectively.