Stavanger. Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her impressive form in the Norway Chess Tournament by defeating Sweden’s experienced Grandmaster Pia Kramling, but her brother R Praggnanandhaa lost to Hikaru Nakamura of the US in the fourth round. This is Vaishali’s second win in the classical category and she has taken a strong lead of 2.5 points. The Indian player has a total of 8.5 points. She is followed by women’s world champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine in joint second place.
Muzychuk registered her first win in the tournament by defeating India’s Koneru Humpy, while Wenjun defeated her compatriot Tingjie Lei in the Armageddon. Six rounds are yet to be played in the tournament being played on a double round robin basis between six players. Lei is in fourth place with five points. Humpy and Cramling have three points each.
In the men’s category, world number one player Magnus Carlsen defeated his long-time rival Fabiano Caruana of America. The results of all the matches in the men’s category were announced on this day. While Indian star Praggnanandhaa had to face defeat from Nakamura, France’s Firouzja Alireza defeated China’s current world champion Ding Liren.
After the fourth round of this $1,61,000 prize money tournament, Nakamura is on top with seven points. He is half a point ahead of Alireza. Carlsen has 6 points and is in third place while Praggnanandhaa has slipped to fourth place with 5.5 points. Caruana is fifth with five points while Liren is in last place with only 2.5 points.