Wijk Aan Zee: World champion D Gukesh came up with a technically masterful effort to beat Vincent Keymer of Germany and take his tally to 3.5 points after the end of the fifth round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament here.
With his second victory in the event, the Indian also climbed to fourth spot in world rankings in live rating, overtaking compatriot Arjun Erigaisi, who played out a draw with Leon Luke Mendonca.
With eight rounds still remaining in the tournament, the first rest day is slated for Friday and Gukesh, with two victories and three draws, is just behind R Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov Nodirbek of Uzbekistan.
Gukesh was in control with his white pieces giving nothing to Keymer, one of his seconds, in a Nimzo-Indian defence game. The Indian got a firm control of the opening file in the centre, methodically won a pawn and handled the technicalities in precise fashion. It was the final game of the day lasting 72 moves, but no one had any doubt about the outcome once Gukesh was on song.
On a day when Praggnanandhaa could not really cause a rampage with his black pieces and drew with Max Warmerdam of Holland, Abdusattorov made the most of the slightly unfavourable colour as he squeezed past another local hopeful Jorden Van Foreest.
That left both Praggnanandhaa and Abdusattorov in front with four points each at the end of the fifth round, with Gukesh in tow just a half point behind alongside Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia.
In the challengers’ section, R Vaishali played out a draw with Frederik Svane of Germany, while Divya Deshmukh lost to Erwin L’Ami of Holland. Vaishali, on 2.5 points, have some catching up to do, while Divya needs to train her sights on winning games.