Leader Vladislav Artemiev silences Arjun Erigaisi, Magnus Carlsen

Vladislav Artemiev continued to embrace time trouble, not giving much importance to urgency. But the world No. 84 defeated world No. 5 Arjun Erigaisi and Magnus Carlsen in successive rounds, doing his own thing.

Those twin wins helped Artemiev take the joint lead after nine of 13 rounds in the World Rapid chess championship in Doha on Saturday. Hans Niemann of the USA joined him at the top on 7.5 points with the last four rounds slated for Sunday.


Artemiev had only 21 seconds remaining on the clock after just 21 moves as Arjun surprised him in the sixth round. Playing with white pieces, Arjun has a clear advantage after 31 moves.

But he missed a rook move (played a queen instead). And eight moves later, he blundered with a bishop move instead of knight retreat. Artemiev won after 48 moves, playing the last 27 moves with only seconds on the clock.

The Russian was up to the task even against Carlsen. The Norwegian opted for ambition over pragmatism in an equal position. He opted against taking a pawn on the 15th turn and though the resultant scruff ensured an entertaining endgame, with tactical ploys from both sides and the Russian not finding the best continuation, Carlsen could not find the equalising Bc6.

It resulted in him facing either mating threats or decisive material loss. Carlsen, clearly upset with himself for his oversmartness, not only resigned but also pushed the camera of the Norwegian TV staffer who followed him along the way.

World champion D. Gukesh (6.5 points) started the day with two draws against Anish Giri and Alexey Sarana and defeated David Guijarro. But a loss to Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov pushed back the Indian to joint third spot.

In the women's section, which will be played over only 11 rounds, Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia and Nino Batsiashvili of Gerogia held overnight sole leader Zhu Jiner to a draw, halting the Chinese’s winning streak.

Defending women's champion and No. 8 seed Humpy benefitted from that by grabbing the joint lead with Jiner with three rounds to go. The Chinese avenged the defeat against eventual women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh in the last round of the day.

Humpy held Goryachkina to a vital draw. Krishna H. Goutham of India, 15, lost three of her four games including ones against Anish Giri and Hans Niemann.

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