2024-04-16 10:25:52
Nurgul Salimova suffered a second defeat from India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu at the tournament of contenders for the world chess title, which is held in the Canadian city of Toronto.
The loss, which came after 88 moves and almost 6 hours of play, was very unpleasant for the 20-year-old Bulgarian, as she had an absolutely winnable position on 2 occasions, but in the white she made a series of weak moves that allowed the Indian playing with the black pieces to make an unexpected turn.
Thus, after 10 rounds, Salimova remains with 4 points in her asset and takes sixth place. With 3.5 points, Vaishali is in the last 8th position, BTA reports.
Salimova, who also lost to Vaishali in the first game between them in the third round, sought revenge against the Indian and at first looked like she had an excellent chance of achieving it.
In the opening, a variant of three knights was played in the Grünfeld Defense, which left the Indian playing with black in a rather difficult situation. The initiative was on Salimova’s side, but on the 22nd move, the Bulgarian played Nh3, which in the specific position was a rather passive move.
Instead, she could have looked for a puck on the seventh line, which would have created very serious havoc in Vaishali’s defensive game.
Salimova’s decision led to an exchange of queens, and the simplification of the position allowed the Indian to level the game completely.
The board position looked like a safe draw, but on move 41, Vaishali committed another inaccuracy by playing …Ke7. At this point, Salimova found a very strong move – 42. Kh2, which seemed to make the victory certain.
However, the time factor intervened here. The zeitnot pressured both players, who took turns messing up, but in the end, Vaishali showed stronger nerves.
The Indian not only saved herself on two separate occasions from a losing position, but also managed to pull out the top endgame, ending her streak of four consecutive losses.
On Tuesday, the contestants in the Challenger Tournament have a rest day, and the games continue on Wednesday with the 11th round. In it, Salimova will play with black against the other Indian – Humpi Koneru. It was against her that the Bulgarian recorded her only victory so far in the fourth round.
The Chinese Lei Tingjie came out on top of the ranking with 6.5 points, who recorded an impressive success with the black pieces over the Russian Alexandra Goryachkina. Thus, after her fourth victory in the last five games, the world vice-champion has equal points with her compatriot Tan Zhongy and a full point ahead of the Russians Goryachkina and Katerina Lagno. Fifth with 4.5 points is Koneru, followed by Salimova and Ukrainian Anna Muzychuk with 4 points each.
Four rounds remain until the end of the race in Toronto.
The winner of the tournament will play China’s Jiu Wenjun in a match for the women’s world title this fall.