Warsaw: Newly-crowned FIDE Candidates’ champion D Gukesh struck back after recovering from a sedate start to defeat compatriot R Praggnanandhaa and Vincent Keymer in the Superbet rapid and blitz tournament, a part of the Grand Chess tour.
Gukesh, who recorded just a lone draw out of three games, fought his way back at the expense of Praggnanandhaa earlier in the first round of the day.
Praggnanandhaa lost his way in the middle game and did not quite recover.
Wasting no time following the loss to Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa also returned much stronger in the fifth-round, defeating Holland’s Anish Giri, while Gukesh made most of chances to crush Keymer. The dream run of Romanian Kirill Shevchenko was ended by Erigaisi Arjun who scored his first victory in the event.
At the top, World number one Magnus Carlsen of Norway joined Shevchenko in the lead on seven points out of a possible ten and these two are now followed by Wei Yi of China who is one point behind.
The Indian trio of Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Arjun are sharing the fourth spot on five points along with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.