The Indian siblings R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali suffered defeats in their respective sections. Meanwhile, Magnus Carlsen justified his top ranking with a victory over Ding Liren, taking the lead with 12 points in the Norway Chess tournament.
Fabiano Caruana also won against Hikaru Nakamura, helping Carlsen to become the front-runner in the six-player double round-robin contest. The total prize pool for the tournament is USD 161000.
After a challenging Classical game, Pragganandhaa lost to Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon tiebreaker. Additionally, in the endgame, Vaishali lost to world women's champion Wenjun Ju of China.
With four rounds remaining in both sections, Carlsen leads with 12 points, followed by Nakamura with 11 points, and Praggnanandhaa in third place with 9.5 points.
Alireza is in fourth place with eight points, and Caruana follows with 6.5 points. Ding Liren is struggling, with just 2.5 points, and needs a remarkable turnaround to get back into the tournament.
In the women's section, Wenjun took the lead from Vaishali, as did Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, who won a hard-fought Armageddon against Tingjie Lei of China. Wenjun and Muzychuk have identical 10.5 points, half a point ahead of Vaishali.
Lei is fourth with seven points, enjoying a two-point lead over Koneru Humpy, who suffered another loss against Pia Cramling of Sweden in the Armageddon.
Cramling has 4.5 points and is still at the bottom of the tables.
Carlsen, the world number one, gained a small advantage from the opening, capitalized on his double Bishops to launch an offensive on the king's side, and used another blunder by Ding Liren to finish the game with a queen sacrifice.
Liren seems far from the form he displayed when he won the last world championship title against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and needs to regroup for the next edition of the tournament against India's D Gukesh.
Currently, Delhi, Chennai, and Singapore are bidding to host the World Championship match, according to FIDE, the apex governing body.
Praggnanandhaa suffered a jolt in his quest as Alireza played a nice game under Classical to put pressure on him and eventually drew the contest. In the return game, however, the Indian faltered and could not really stage a comeback.
Vaishali had her chances in the women's section, but Wenjun Ju was at her technical best and seized opportunities as they came her way. The minor pieces in the endgame had some chances, but Vaishali could not sustain the pressure.
Results men: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 12) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) 3-0; Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 11) lost to Fabiano Caruana (USA, 6.5) 1-1.5; Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 8) beat R Praggnanandhaa (10) 1.5-1.
Women: R Vaishali (Ind, 10) lost to Wenjun Ju (Chn, 10.5) 0-3; K Humpy (Ind, 5) lost to Pia Cramling (Swe, 4.5) 1-1.5; Anna Muzychuk (10.5 beat Tingkie Lei (Chn, 7) 1.5-1).
Follow us
