World Rapid C'ship: Koneru Humpy in joint lead after securing three straight wins

The defending champion Koneru Humpy has risen up to the joint top position in the women's section of the World Rapid Championship in Doha on Saturday.

After a slow first day, Humpy returned strongly to register three consecutive wins to start the day and then played a draw in the fourth game against Aleksandra Goryachkina.

With this solid performance, she joined Zhu Jiner at the top with 6.5 points from 8 games, setting up a crucial Round 9 clash between the co-leaders.

Meanwhile, Harika Dronavalli (6/8) remained unbeaten after day 2, trailing half a point behind the two leaders, whereas Divya Deshmukh (5.5/8) faced her first defeat in round 8.

Arjun & Gukesh face their first defeat

In the open section, Arjun Erigaisi and Gukesh Dommaraju faced their first defeat of the tournament in sixth and ninth rounds, respectively, falling outside the top-6.

Arjun lost to the current joint leader, Vladislav Artemiev of Russia, with the white pieces, whereas Gukesh bowed down to Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.

Both of them now have 6.5 points from 9 games and are trailing behind the two leaders, Vladislav and Hans Niemann of the USA, by 1 point.

Meanwhile, Nihal Sarin, Rameshbabu Pragnanandhaa and Pranav Anand have 6 points from 9 games and will need a great outing on the final day to have a chance of a podium finish.

On the other hand, the star of the opening day, 15-year-old IM Goutham Krishna, had a tough outing on Saturday, losing 3 out of 4 games, and dropped outside the top 70.