The women section of the ongoing King Salman World Rapid has only two Indians, namely Koneru Humpy and Harika Dronavalli, but both of them are performing commendably well and have kept the country's medal hopes alive in the event. Koneru defeated the strong Georgian Grandmaster Nana Dzagnidze in the eighth round, while Harika has remained unbeaten so far holding her own against players like Kateryna Lagno and Alina Kashlinskaya.
Humpy faces the Russian-Turkish player Ekaterina Atalik in the ninth round with black pieces. With four rounds still remaining she has all the chances to make it to the top of the leaderboard | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Humpy is already gaining a substantial 25.2 Elo points from her performance.
Harika's round nine encounter against Anna Muzychuk will certainly be a game to look out for | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Harika too is performing at a rating of 2524 and is just half a point behind the leaders even after starting off as the 16th seed in the event.
Standings after eight rounds (Women)
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
| 1 | 24 | IM | Bulmaga Irina | ROU | 2383 | 6,5 | 39,0 | 42,0 | 2392 | 0,0 | |
| 2 | 6 | GM | Tan Zhongyi | CHN | 2496 | 6,5 | 38,0 | 42,0 | 2346 | 0,0 | |
| 3 | 5 | GM | Lei Tingjie | CHN | 2498 | 6,5 | 37,0 | 38,5 | 2369 | 0,0 | |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | UKR | 2518 | 6,5 | 34,0 | 37,5 | 2335 | 0,0 | |
| 5 | 13 | GM | Koneru Humpy | IND | 2438 | 6,0 | 38,5 | 40,5 | 2388 | 0,0 | |
| 6 | 30 | WGM | Girya Olga | RUS | 2365 | 6,0 | 37,5 | 40,5 | 2441 | 0,0 | |
| 7 | 3 | GM | Lagno Kateryna | RUS | 2533 | 6,0 | 34,0 | 37,0 | 2350 | 0,0 | |
| 8 | 16 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2425 | 6,0 | 33,0 | 35,5 | 2353 | 0,0 | |
| 9 | 31 | IM | Atalik Ekaterina | TUR | 2360 | 6,0 | 32,5 | 34,5 | 2339 | 0,0 | |
| 10 | 1 | GM | Muzychuk Anna | UKR | 2592 | 6,0 | 32,0 | 35,0 | 2350 | 0,0 |
In the open section, Vidit Gujrathi started off as the highest rated Indian player but he has slowed down to draw consecutive games in the last three rounds. Adhiban Baskaran instead has risen up to the occasion and is now the highest ranked among all Indians with 6.5/11 points.
Vidit has to play the last four rounds really well to ensure a strong finish | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Adhiban Baskaran on the other hand hasn't failed to show his beastly form, winning three games in a row from rounds seven to nine and holding Boris Gelfand to a draw in round ten. However he had suffer a defeat in the eleventh round against Alexander Motylev | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Adhiban explains his win against Georg Meier from round nine | Video: ChessBase India
Raunak Sadhwani is playing the World Rapid and Blitz event for the first time and he has clearly played some very solid chess to prove his mettle which is reflected in the fact he is already gaining over 70 Elo points. Check out the youngster's interview with IM Sagar Shah in the video below | Photo: Amruta Mokal
Nihal Sarin is already gaining a whopping 94.8 Elo points. The Indian wunderkind started with a rapid rating of only 2292 but in terms of actual strength he is no doubt head and shoulders ahead of that mark | Photo: Pierre Textoris
Check out Nihal holding the strong Azerbaijani GM Rauf Mamedov to a draw | Video: ChessBase India
The winner of the recently concluded Indian Championship and the triple-crown National Champion Aravindh Chithambaram is fighting it out tenaciously with the World's elite. He has so far held his own against an impressive list of players that include Alexander Grischuk, Hikaru Nakamura, and Levon Aronian | Photo: Lennart Ootes
Standings after eleven rounds (Open)
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | ||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Carlsen Magnus | NOR | 2886 | 8,5 | 67,5 | 72,0 | 2696 | 0,0 | |
| 2 | 9 | GM | Dominguez Perez Leinier | USA | 2755 | 8,0 | 67,5 | 72,0 | 2681 | 0,0 | |
| 3 | 6 | GM | Aronian Levon | ARM | 2784 | 8,0 | 66,5 | 70,0 | 2664 | 0,0 | |
| 4 | 2 | GM | Vachier-Lagrave Maxime | FRA | 2873 | 8,0 | 66,0 | 69,5 | 2685 | 0,0 | |
| 5 | 3 | GM | Nakamura Hikaru | USA | 2819 | 8,0 | 63,0 | 68,0 | 2668 | 0,0 | |
| 6 | 12 | GM | Mamedyarov Shakhriyar | AZE | 2752 | 7,5 | 72,0 | 77,0 | 2708 | 0,0 | |
| 7 | 17 | GM | Wang Hao | CHN | 2748 | 7,5 | 71,5 | 76,0 | 2719 | 0,0 | |
| 8 | 20 | GM | Nepomniachtchi Ian | RUS | 2745 | 7,5 | 70,0 | 75,5 | 2660 | 0,0 | |
| 9 | 95 | GM | Smirin Ilia | ISR | 2584 | 7,5 | 69,5 | 74,5 | 2733 | 0,0 | |
| 10 | 38 | GM | Guseinov Gadir | AZE | 2691 | 7,5 | 68,0 | 72,5 | 2669 | 0,0 |
Overview of Indian performances
| SNo | Name | Rtg | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | Pts. | Rk. | Group | |
| 48 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2668 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 6,0 | 53 | Rapid Open |
| 72 | GM | Adhiban B. | 2607 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 6,5 | 30 | Rapid Open |
| 81 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2601 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 4,5 | 129 | Rapid Open |
| 91 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2592 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 6,0 | 46 | Rapid Open |
| 111 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2560 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | 5,5 | 73 | Rapid Open |
| 130 | GM | Narayanan Srinath | 2526 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 5,0 | 106 | Rapid Open |
| 138 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2508 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 0 | 6,0 | 40 | Rapid Open |
| 164 | GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | 2438 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 4,5 | 136 | Rapid Open |
| 170 | GM | Harsha Bharathakoti | 2418 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4,0 | 155 | Rapid Open |
| 180 | IM | Sadhwani Raunak | 2358 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 5,5 | 89 | Rapid Open |
| 189 | GM | Nihal Sarin | 2292 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6,0 | 48 | Rapid Open |
| 207 | GM | Gukesh D | 1799 | 1 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 4,0 | 157 | Rapid Open |
| 13 | GM | Koneru Humpy | 2438 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 6,0 | 5 | Rapid Women | ||
| 16 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 2425 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 6,0 | 8 | Rapid Women |
