Sevian gains sole lead, Wenjun already the most successful female performer of MCCT
Wenjun Ju is having the best tournament among all women who participated in a Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event. She scored three wins on the second day to take her score 12/24. All eight of her games had decisive results. This is the highest ever score by a female participant at Meltwater Champions Chess Tour events.
Round 5: Arjun Erigaisi - Wojtaszek: 3-0
Arjun Erigaisi won a thriller against Poland no.2 Radoslaw Wojtaszek.
While both sides are trying to promote their respective passed pawns, White has a slight edge due to having two connected passed pawns. 37...Rb2 turned things in White's favor 38.e6+ Ke7 39.Rge2 Rxc2 40.d6+ Kf6 41.d7 Rh1+ 42.Kg4 h5+ White is happy to bring his king to his opponent's side 43.Kxh5+-. White went on to win the game after a back and forth battle.
Round 6: Shankland - Arjun Erigaisi: 0-3
Arjun Erigaisi survived a completely lost endgame against Sam Shankland.
35.Rb7 Kf8 36.Bc5+ is completely winning for White. However, he made a mistake of pushing the e-pawn a bit too early 35.e7 Kf7 allowed Black to equalize.
White can still get a comfortable draw by liquidating the position into a pawn ending via 43.Rc7 followed by an exchange of bishop and rook at e7. However, White blundered 43.Kc5. Find out why it is a huge mistake.
Round 8: Leinier - Arjun Erigaisi: 0-3
USA no.5 Leinier Dominguez Perez made a positional inaccuracy which allowed Arjun Erigaisi to activate his knights.
30.f5 allowed Black to get rid of White's bishop pair Ne5 31.Rxe5 Qxe5 -+. Even 31.Qg2 would have led to Nxd3 32.cxd3 Qc3 and Black gets a firm grip of the position.
Replay the live stream
Highlights
A few interesting finishes of the day
Replay Round 5-8 games
Standings after Round 8
All games will start from 9:30 p.m. IST between 10th and 17th July 2022.
