Chess: Vaishali Registers Unexpected Victory in World Blitz Finals Qualifier

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Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali delivered an unexpected performance, advancing to the World Blitz Championship quarterfinals. Meanwhile, Koneru Humpy, who recently won the rapid championship, exited early. Vaishali scored 9.5 points from 11 games, including three draws.

"I'm very happy with today's performance. Tomorrow will be a big day," she said. "Honestly, it was completely unexpected. I was not expecting the result like how it went today."

In the women's section, Vaishali's closest competitor was Russian Kateryna Lagno, who scored 8.5 points. The remaining six qualifiers each finished with eight points. Despite meeting the points criteria, Humpy was eliminated due to a poor tiebreaker and ended up ninth.

Open Section Highlights

The Open section saw ten players tied for first place, including world number one Magnus Carlsen. The Norwegian drew six of his 13 games and finished among the co-leaders at the end of the qualifiers. Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi topped the qualifiers with 9.5 points, benefiting from the best tiebreaker.

Fabiano Caruana from the United States secured second place, ahead of Carlsen, who finished third. Surprisingly, no Indian players made it to the top eight despite promising starts.

Indian Players' Performance

Arjun Erigaisi began strongly with five consecutive wins but faded to finish with seven points. R Praggnanandhaa was India's best performer with 8.5 points but lost his final round to Russian Daniil Dubov, missing out on a quarterfinal spot.

In the women's quarterfinals, Vaishali will face Chinese Grandmaster Zhu Jiner. Her victories against GMs Nana Dzagnidze and Valentina Gunina in rounds 7-8 were crucial for her success.

Vaishali's Strategy and Challenges

The 23-year-old Indian faced intense time pressure against Gunina, playing 23 moves with minimal thinking time. "You have nothing to think; you keep playing your moves," Vaishali said about her time management struggles.

"Towards the end, I offered a draw with rook-knight 3 versus 3," she added. "I think she wanted to play but her clock fell and that's how I won." Vaishali acknowledged that many players were stronger than her in Blitz and considered herself lucky to lead by one point.

Preferences and Reflections

"I don't think I'm a great blitz player, honestly," Vaishali admitted. "There are many more strong players here." She felt fortunate in several games and noted that things just worked out for her.

Discussing the knockout round, Vaishali said she hadn't thought much about it due to recent illness. She expressed a preference for classical games over Rapid chess because of its emotional intensity.

"I prefer classical any day... rapid is fun to play but lots of emotions," she explained. "Like, so many games you are playing in a day and it's hard to deal with sometimes."

Standings and Qualifiers

The standings for Indian players were as follows: