FIDE Grand Swiss 2023: R Vaishali gets the better of former world champion Mariya Muzychuk

India's R Vaishali took her points tally to 3.5 after defeating former world champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in the fourth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2023 chess competition. The tournament is part of the World Championships cycle.

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Vaishali, sister of India's budding chess player R Praggnanandhaa, had achieved her third and final Grandmaster norm at the recently concluded Qatar Masters. With that she proved that she is ready for any challenge.

The Chennai-based player displayed a brilliant display of her attacking skills on Saturday and defeated Muzychuk in just 23 moves. The Ukrainian player lost a pawn in the beginning from which she could not recover till the end. This is Vaishali's third win in four games.

The Sicilian defense by Vaishali was met with the Rossolimo Sicilian but she had some opening ideas that caught Muzychuk off guard, the resulting position was quite complicated but when it comes to calculating the deepest secret out of any position Vaishali has shown that she is the one to be relied upon.

Muzychuk did not stand any chance as she first lost a piece and subsequently walked in to checkmate web. Amazingly it took just 23 moves for Vaishali to seal her third victory in four games.

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi's victory in the open category seemed certain at one time but in the end he was held to a draw by Serbia's Aleksandar Predke. Arjun was leading the game, and he was well-placed to convert another full point that would have taken him to 3.5 points. However, Predke found a way to prevent Arjun from winning, salvaging a draw through perpetual checks after sacrificing his queen.

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Meanwhile, Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi continued his winning streak. He defeated former World Championship challenger Alexei Shirov of Spain to achieve his third consecutive win. Grandmaster Vidit collected points with his brilliant technique with white pieces in a Slav defence game and won two Bishops for a rook. Shirov had no chance thereafter and called it a day quickly.