D Gukesh and Divya Deshmukh (Photo by M Walusza)

World Champion D Gukesh and Divya Deshmukh played to a draw in a rook-and-knight versus rook endgame that lasted 103 moves.Grandmaster Nihal Sarin secured a quick draw against Germany’s Matthias Bluebaum in the eighth round of the FIDE Grand Swiss. Both players now share the lead with six points each.R Vaishali lost her sole lead in the women’s section after a defeat to Kazakhstan’s Bibisara Assaubayeva. In the same round, defending champion Vidit Gujrathi was defeated by Germany’s Vincent Keymer.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. SUBSCRIBE NOW!Russia’s Kateryna Lagno defeated Ukraine’s Mariya Muzychuk with white pieces. Lagno now leads with 6.5 points out of eight possible points.Lagno holds a half-point advantage over Assaubayeva, Vaishali, and China’s Yuxin Song, who all have six points.Playing with black pieces, Nihal chose the Queen’s Gambit Accepted against Bluebaum. The game concluded in a draw after 21 moves as both players repeated their moves.Vaishali faced difficulties in the endgame against Assaubayeva. The Kazakh player capitalised on Vaishali’s mistake when she left a pawn unprotected.Assaubayeva secured the extra pawn and demonstrated strong technical skills to win the game.Vaishali’s next challenge will be against Yuxin Song, a crucial match that could determine her tournament standing.FORMATS:Open

Women