Dubai Open | Divya Desmukh fights back with 76-move win on eighth day

One day after Divya lost for the second time in the meet she managed to use her opening to great advantage as she went on a 76-move marathon to beat compatriot Jeet Jain. The 26th board battle went on for four hours as Divya crawled her way back into the nine-day international meet.

"With the white pieces, I opted for the Ruy Lopez opening. It followed quite a bit till my preparation but then he diverted and I lost plenty of time on the clock. Then we reached the middle game stage where he made a mistake which allowed me to take slight edge" said Divya, reported  TOI.

"I had a Queen and he had two extra pieces - Bishop and Rook. I slowly managed to win by first gaining his pawns before opening his king side and managing to win that crucial point," she added.

Prior to that in the seventh round, Divya had seen her losing to IM Visakh NR in 42 moves, but she had rectified her mistake this time. “It was a Nimzo Indian defense and he was attacking on my King side. I tried to counter play on the Queen side but lost a pawn in that process and soon became loosing," Divya said.

Apart from her, 34th ranked Raunak lost with his black pieces against GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr who is 12th seeded. Other masters like Shailesh Dravid and Mrudul Dehankar lost their respective games. While 38th-ranked Iran's GM Darini Pouria defeated FM Dravid on the 29th board, WCM Mrudul lost to lower ranked Antony Jesumarian Leslie failing to use utilize her opening advantage with the white pieces.