Unbeaten D Gukesh in Four-way Lead in Tata Chess Blitz Section – News18

India No 1 D Gukesh remained unbeaten with two draws and one win to share the lead with three others after third round in the Open Blitz section of the Tata Steel Chess India 2023 on Tuesday.

The 17-year-old, who ended the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand’s 37-year reign as India No 1, finished the day with two points with six more rounds to go.

The three others in the joint-lead are the 2019 World Cup winner of Azerbaijan Teimour Radjabov, 2021 World Blitz champion Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Vincent Keymer, the 2022 Rapid World Championship silver medallist.

The 18-year-old German prodigy Keymer produced the upset of the day when he outwitted R Praggnanandhaa in round three, which pushed the latest Indian sensation to the second spot with 1.5 points.

Alexander Grischuk and Nodirbek Abdusattorov are also at 1.5 points apiece and closely follow the lead pack.

Praggnanandhaa, who is at the peak of his nascent career, started proceedings with a convincing victory over GM Teimour Radjabov with the black pieces.

But in the second round, he drew against Vachier-Lagrave and ended the day with loss to Keymer.

Gukesh began his campaign with a draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov, after the Uzbek youngster seemed to have an advantage in the middle game.

Gukesh fought tooth and nail finding one right move after the other to equalise.

In round two, a wild game between Gukesh and Harikrishna Pentala had fans go crazy about it, with the former going on to clinch the tactical battle.

Then in the last round of the day, Gukesh and Alexander Grischuk’s game ended in a marathon 97-move draw.

There will be three more rounds each on Wednesday and Thursday to determine the rapid champion.

(This story has not been edited by News18 staff and is published from a syndicated news agency feed – PTI)