Divya, Vaishali post first wins in Candidates to keep Indian hopes alive

India's campaign in the Candidates Chess Tournament was back on track on Saturday with both R Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh posting their first wins to stay in the hunt in Cyprus.

Vaishali defeated Russian Kateryna Lagno, while Divya got the better of Kazakh star Bibisara Assaubayeva in their round six games in the women's category.

Divya took advantage of inaccurate play from her opponent in a queen-rook ending, while Vaishali came out on top in a wild game that presented both players with winning chances.

Vaishali found an idea by sacrificing a bishop but thereafter failed to find the right sequence. She so nearly threw the game away with a set of bad moves, but Lagno missed her chance and made a blunder in return.

Divya and Vaishali, the two Indians in the eight-player field, had lost to Zhu Jiner of China in rounds four and five respectively.

Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine has taken sole lead (four points) after beating Jiner in round six. Five others, including the Indian duo, are on three points each.

Divya will play Lagno and Vaishali is paired with Tan Zhongyi of China in round seven. Both Indians have white pieces.

Meanwhile, in the open category, India's lone competitor, R Praggnanandhaa, drew with World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura to remain third in the table. However, the title race is slipping away as Uzbek star Javokhir Sindarov maintained his fine form with a victory over Wei Yi. Sindarov has won five games and drawn once in six rounds to take his tally to 5.5 points, while second-placed Fabiano Caruana is a distant second on 4.

The 14-round tournament is played to decide the challengers to the reigning classical world champions Ju Wenjun and D Gukesh.