The King Salman World Rapid Championship continued today at the iconic Apex Convention Centre in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Five more rounds were played in both Open and Women’s sections.
The overnight leader in the Women’s section, Ju Wenjun of China, continued the campaign with four straight draws, but then when it mattered the most she closed the day with a win against IM Pham Le Thao Nguyen, once again singling out on the top of the standings with 8,0/10 points.
Half a point behind the leader are WGM Aleksandra Goryachkina (Russia), GM Elina Danielian (Armenia) and GM Nana Dzagnidze (Georgia) on 7,5 points each.
In the Open section Vladimir Fedoseev from Russia started with a win against the overnight co-leader Baadur Jobava and next he defeated Yuriy Kuzubov. There followed three draws in a row, but this was sufficient to retain a clear first place with 8,0/10 points.
On the shared second place with 7,5 points are Peter Svidler from Russia, Wang Hao from China and Viswanathan Anand of India, who has notably beaten the World classical champion Magnus Carlsen.
Of memorable games, the 15-years old Russian star Andrey Esipenko crushed the reigning World blitz chess champion and World championship challenger in classical chess Sergey Karjakin with a beautiful queen sacrifice.
The King Salman World Rapid Championship has five more rounds to be played and will end tomorrow.
Players from 55 countries, among them 10 men out of the World Top-15 as well as 11 out the World Top-15 women, are competing in this prestigious event.