Chess
Grand Swiss 2025: R Vaishali takes sole lead with third consecutive win
D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, and Arjun Erigaisi tied in second place in the open category after their third round wins.
GM Rameshbabu Vaishali takes sole lead in the women's category after round 3 of FIDE Grand Swiss 2025. (File photo)
The defending champion, GM Rameshbabu Vaishali, continued her solid run at the 2025 Grand Swiss Tournament with her third straight win at the Silk Road EXPO in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Saturday.
Vaishali defeated Olga Badelka of Austria in a 37-move game, having a couple of brilliancies to corner Olga's King with a triple attack from Queen, Rook, and Knight.
In the open category, Gukesh Dommaraju, R Praggnandhaa, and Arjun Erigiasi registered their second of the tournament to climb to joint second place with 2.5 points.
They are just half a point behind the current leader, Parham Maghsoodloo, who defeated Alireza Firouja in the third round to take the sole lead.
Both Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh showed impressive accuracy rates to take a win with the black pieces against Israel's Boris Gelfand and Spain's Daniil Yuffa, respectively.
Meanwhile, Arjun outclassed the Petrov defense of Slovenian grandmaster Anton Demchenko to win a 65-move match with the white pieces.
The defending champion Vidit Gujrathi and the youngster Nihal Sarin played out a draw in the third round, to further down the standings outside the top 30 with 2 points from three games.
In the women's section, Harika Dronavalli played her third consecutive draw, whereas Vantika Agrawal faced her first defeat of the tournament in the third round.
