FIDE Grand Swiss Round 4: Divya Deshmukh stuns Amin Bassem; Gukesh-Arjun ends in draw, Pragg draws too

Divya Deshmukh managed to win her first game at the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament, inflicting a crushing defeat on Egyptian grandmaster Amin Bassem, who has 158 ELO rating points more than the Indian teenager, who only recently became a GM. Bassem on the other hand is Africa’s highest rated and he also is a medical doctor by profession with a peak rating of 2700+.

The world no 94 Egyptian held an edge in the game from the 10th move itself, which became a substantial advantage by the 16th move, against 19-year-old Divya, who is ranked 761st among active players. The gulf in rankings between Bassem, who can stake a claim to being the best Arab chess player in history, and Divya is 666 spots.

READ: Divya Deshmukh stuns Egyptian GM ranked 666 spots above her in rankings with kitchen-sink of an attack

Here's an interview from Divya Deshmukh where she talks about her victory over Egyptian GM Amin Bassem

Grand Swiss results

Praggnanandhaa ½ - ½ Abhimanyu Mishra

Gukesh ½ - ½ Arjun Erigaisi

Leon Luke Mendonca ½ - ½ Hans Moke Niemann

Vasyl Ivanchuk 2608 ½ - ½ Vidit Santosh Gujrathi

Pranav V ½ - ½ Nihal Sarin

Aditya Mittal 0 - 1 Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus

Yu Yangyi ½ - ½ Abhimanyu Puranik

Pentala Harikrishna ½ - ½ Jeffery Xiong

Liang Awonder 1 - 0 Aryan Chopra

Volodar Murzin ½ - ½ Narayanan S L

Jon Ludvig Hammer 0 - 1 Raunak Sadhwani

Karthikeyan Murali ½ - ½ Xu Xiangyu

Amin Bassem 0 - 1 Divya Deshmukh

Women's Grand Swiss results

Dinara Wagner ½ - ½ Vaishali Rameshbabu

Harika Dronavalli ½ - ½ Khanim Balajayeva

Vantika Agrawal 0 - 1 Alexandra Kosteniuk

Vaishali Rameshbabu drops her first points in the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss tournament after being held to a draw by German IM Dinara Wagner.

But she's the only woman to remain unbeaten in the Women's Grand Swiss tournament.

here's how the game played out

What a victory for Divya Deshmukh, she takes down Egyptian grandmaster Amin Bassem who is rated more than 150 ratings points higher than her in the FIDE ratings.

By the time the defeat came, Divya was two pawns and a rook up!

INCREDIBLE!!!

Here's how the game played out

So Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi play out a 46-move draw and after they agree to lay down weapons, we get the rare sight of both players smiling --- and the even rarer sight of them laughing in the playing hall --- as they discuss the game with each other. Seriously, this is a rare sight, since both players get real serious and in the zone during tournaments.

Meanwhile, here's how the game played out

Praggnanandhaa is a pawn up against Abhimanyu Mishra, who is the youngest player in history to become a grandmaster.

The eval bar also showing a healthy edge for the Indian against the Indian-origin American GM.

This is what the board looks like after both players have played 36 moves:

Plenty of top players have settled for draws already today, including Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Alireza Firouzja and Levon Aronian.

Alireza, in particular, was leading the standings early on in the tournament after two rounds, but right now has accepted a draws against Polish GM Szymon Gumularz, who at a rating of 2590 is almost 160 rating points lower than Alireza (rated 2754).

Anish Giri also settled for a draw against Ivan Cheparinov, who has emerged as a serial draw machine at the event. So far, Cheparinov has held Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Hans Moke Niemann to draws besides defeating local lad Javokhir Sindarov. Cheparinov has been one of Alireza's seconds.

Meanwhile, Saleh Salem holds off Levon Aronian, while Robert Hovhannisyan draws against Nepomniachtchi.

Judit Polgar predicts that the Gukesh vs Arjun Erigaisi game will end as a draw after seeing the first 27 moves from both players. Not too much to separate both players in terms of time on the clock.

Here are all the moves so far from both players

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 d5 4. Bg2 Bd6 5. Nf3 O-O 6. O-O Nbd7 7. Qc2 c6 8. Nbd2 Re8 9. b3 e5 10. cxd5 cxd5 11. dxe5 Nxe5 12. Bb2 Bg4 13. Bxe5 Bxe5 14. Nxe5 Rxe5 15. Nf3 Re7 16. Nd4 Rc8 17. Qb2 Rec7 18. Rac1 a6 19. e3 Rxc1 20. Rxc1 Rxc1+ 21. Qxc1 Qc8 22. Qf1 h5 23. a4 Qc3 Bd7 25. Qd1 Qc8 26. h4 Qc3 27. Bf3 Bg4 28. Kg2

After 17 moves, Vaishali had an additional rook on the chessboard compared to her opponent, German IM Dinara Wagner, who was a bishop up.

But Vaishali has almost an hour less on her clock compared to the German. But in the span of a few moves, the clocks almost catch up with each other. Vaishali now has 20 minutes on her clock compared to Wagner's 34 after 21 moves from both players with Vaishali still being a rook up.

here's how the game has progressed:

The Vidit Gujrathi vs Vasyl Ivanchuk battle sees a clash of two players who inevitably find themselves in time trouble. Repeatedly! And true to form, Vidit Gujrathi has spent over 32 minutes (and counting) contemplating his 13th move after Ivanchuk played 13.h6.

Just look at that march of that h pawn from Ivanchuk that has forced Vidit deep into thought!

In the Vantika Agrawal vs Alexandra Kosteniuk game, the young Indian IM is very low on time now. She's down to 31 minutes after just 10 moves while her opponent from Switzerland has a whopping 59 minutes, almost twice as much time. This leaves Vantika with half an hour minutes for 30 moves before she gets 30 additional minutes. That's one move per minute!

Here's how the game has progressed

Remember, players in the Women's Grand Swiss event have much less time at the tournament than the contenders in the Grand Swiss.

For the Women's Grand Swiss the time controls are: 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

For Grand Swiss the time controls are: 100 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the next 20 moves, followed by 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from move 1.

After 15 moves, with Gukesh starting with a Catalan with white, it feels like he's the one playing for an edge while Arjun is just content with playing to keep the position level.

The World Champion meanwhile has built up a 13-minute advantage on the clock compared to Arjun. Plenty of blood spilt on the board already and we're just in the 15th move!

Here's how the game has progressed:

So we have a Catalan Opening (where white plays 1.d4 2.c4 3.g3) on the board from the world champion Gukesh Dommaraju against Arjun Erigaisi.

Five moves in the book already in quick fashion from both payers who are clearly itching for a fight today!

Want to read more about the Catalan Opening? Here's our guide to the Catalan, which was invented in 1929 by Grandmaster Savielly Tartakower in honour of the Catalonia region, when he was asked at a tournament in Spain to invent an opening system in honor of the region's chess history.

Gukesh, remember, had used the Catalan against Ding Liren in the world championship.

Here's how the game has progressed today so far against Arjun:

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of round 4 of the FIDE Grand Swiss tournament where we have some massive clashes today. The biggest one involves two members of India's golden generation: world champion Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi.

Meanwhile, Pragg will take on the world youngest grandmaster in history Abhimanyu Mishra, who represents USA, while we will also have plenty of focus on Vaishali, the defending champion in the women's section who has remained the only unbeaten player in the women's section.