RIGA (Latvia): Indian chess ace Dronavalli Harika held top-seed Ukrainian Mariya Muzychuk draw at 11th and final round of the chess tournament FIDE Women Grand Swiss here to finish fifth and qualify for the next cycle of women’s Grand Prix.
Harika, who started the event as the fourth seed, sharing the points with Muzychuk in 31 moves on Sunday night to end with seven points and remain unbeaten in the tournament.
He tied for third place with Ukraine but eventually settled for fifth place on the basis of the value of the tie-break.
Meanwhile, Agrawal Vantika 19-year-old, who recently became Woman Grandmaster, finished 14, credited with 6.5 points, including three wins, seven draws and one loss.
In the Open event, GM India Nihal Sarin has the best finish, taking 18th place with 6.5 points.
Fellow P Harikrishna and K Sasikiran far completed 30 and 31 respectively with six points from 11 rounds.
Sarin, who remained unbeaten in the event, exciting final round match against the talented Russian Daniil Dubov while Harikrishna signed peace with Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine.
Sasikiran, who has done well to be one of the leaders together for a while, lost to Ukraine Anton Korobov to finish with six points.
GM Raunak Sadhwani Moke Hans Niemann draw with USA in the final round to secure 5.5 points and 57 finished.
In the all-India clash, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa draw in 34 moves.
Both finished the event with five points.
Praggnanandhaa take place 72nd while Gukesh ended three places lower.
In the women’s event, just Vantika Agrwal besides Harika managed a draw while others – R Vaishali, Divya Deshmukh and Padmini Rout – lost in their final round match.
Alireza Firouzja and Lei Tingjie emerge winners in the Open and the women’s event respectively.
French naturalization Fioruzja scored eight points from 11 rounds after drawing with Grigoriy Oparin and finished the front half of the field point.
World no 2 Fabiano Caruana took the second place with 7.5 points.
Tingjie dominate and finished on top with nine points, 1.5 points ahead of the rest.
Second and third place is shared by Paehtz Elisabeth from Germany, who also secured his final GM norm and Zhu Jiner of China, both with 7.5 points.
the final placings of India playersOpen: Nihal Sarin (6.5 points, 18th place), P Harikrishna (6.5 points, 30), K Sasikiran (6 points, 31), Raunak Sadhwani (5.5 points, 57), Arjun Erigaisi (5.5 points, 58th), R Praggnanandhaa (5 points, 75), D Gukesh (5 points, 75), SP Sethuraman (4.5 points, to 83), Surya Shekhar Ganguly (4.5 , 88), B Adhiban (4.5 points, 90) Women: D Harika (7 points, 5), Vantika Agrawal (6.5 points, 14), R Vaishali (5.5 points, 29), Padmini Rout ( 4 points, 44) and Divya Deshmukh (4 points, 46)
FIDE Grand Switzerland : Harika finished 5th , qualified for the next GP cycle
