New Delhi: American Grandmaster (GM) Levon Aronian and International Master (IM) Bibisara Assaubayeva are leading day one of the FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship 2021 at the PGE Narodowy Stadium, Warsaw, on Thursday.
Aronian gained 10 points in 12 rounds and effortlessly defeated tough contenders like Alexander Grischuk in round 8, Jan-Krzysztof Duda in 9, Fedoseev in 10, and Daniil Dubov in round 12. He checkmated Duda in round 9 by overpowering the opponent’s Queen with 2 Bishops and a Knight.
The 5-time African Champion, Egyptian GM Bassem Amin, came second with 9.5 points, followed by 21-year-old Iranian GM Parham Maghsoodloo at third place with 9 points. However, Magnus Carlsen lost 3 games and ended the day with an 8.5/12.
The speed-chess event hosted 179 participants in the open section, with 12 rounds scheduled for Thursday and 9 for Friday. GMs Ian Nepomniachtchi, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Alexander Grischuk, and Alireza Firouzja emerged favourites.
Meanwhile, 109 players participated in 9 rounds of the Women’s open section on Thursday. 17-year-old Bibisara Assaubayeva finished a clear first with 8 points in 9 rounds, followed by Indian players IM Vaishali Rameshbabu with 7.5/9 and former women’s rapid champion GM Koneru Humpy with 7/9.
Assaubayeva had a near-perfect score as she won all matches before losing to Russian GM Valentina Gunina in round 5. Overcome by rage and frustration, Assaubayeva counterattacked Women’s Rapid World Champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in the final moments of round 6 to win the match.
She even defeated former 2-time Women’s Blitz Champion Anna Muzychuk in an intense match on Thursday.
The top 8 women contenders on the leaderboard belong to Kazakhstan (3 players), India (2), and Russia (3).
(Avya Mathur)
