World rapid chess: Harika in joint second place after four rounds

Arjun Erigaisi and Raunak Sadhwani were in the joint fifth place at the end of the fifth round of the World rapid chess championship in Singapore. They were on four points, along with nine others.

Russia’s Volodar Murzin, Shant Sargyasan (Armenia) and Leinier Dominguez Perez and Daniel Naroditsky, both of the United States, were sharing the lead with 4.5 points each. In the day’s biggest upset, 18-year-old Denis Lazavik of Belarus defeated top seed Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

Sadhwani also caused a stir when he defeated seventh seed Alireza Firouzja of France in the second round. Among the other Indians, V. Pranav was placed 32nd, followed by R. Praggnanadhaa (56th) and Diptayan Ghosh (69th). Eight rounds remain.

In the women’s event, Alice Lee of the United States took the sole lead with four points, after winning all her four games. India’s D. Harika was among five players in the second place, with 3.5 points; the Chinese duo of Ju Wenjun and Tan Zhongyi, Nino Batsiashvili of Georgia and Gunay Mammadzada of Azerbaijan were the others.

After Harika, R. Vaishali was the best-placed Indian, with three points, she was in the 15th position, with another seven rounds remaining. Koneru Humpy, Divya Deshmukh and Vantika Agrawal have some catching up to do.