Gukesh crushes Harikrishna, among leaders now

Gukesh's third victory in the event has put him on course for his maiden title here as he now shares the lead with fellow Indian R Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan on five points

Wijk Aan Zee: World Champion D Gukesh grabbed the joint lead Tata Steel masters, outplaying his world championship second P Harikrishna in the seventh round here.

It was Gukesh’s third victory in the event that put him on course for his maiden title here as he now shares the lead with fellow Indian R Praggnanandhaa and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan on five points.

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Praggnanandhaa could not break the defenses of Jorden van Foreest while Anish Giri drew his sixth game on the trot with Abdusattorov.

Meanwhile local hopeful Max Warmerdam added to the woes of Arjun Erigaisi by handing the Indian his fourth defeat in the tournament.

Having started the tournament on 2801 as the second seed just behind Fabiano Caruana of United States this has been a real let down by the Indian who has lost about 28 rating points and has slipped to sixth spot in live ratings.

The other Indian in the fray – Leon Luke Mendonca – seem to be getting into the groove as he held defending champion Wei Yi of China to a draw. However, much hard work still remains to be done in the remaining six round for the young Indian grandmaster.

Vladimir Fedoseev came back in to reckoning for top honours at the expense of Vincent Keymer of Germany. The Russian-turned-Slovenian has 4.5 points and holds the fourth spot just ahead of former compatriot Alexey Sarana who now plays for Serbia.

Harikrishna on 3.5 points is sharing the sixth spot with Caruana, and Wei Yi. Mendonca has two points, a half more than Arjun and they are on last two spots in the 14-player 13-round tournament.

Gukesh faced the French defense by Harikrishna, an opening he had a deep look into during the World championship match against Chinese Ding Liren.

The Advance variation provided a certain volatility to the position and Gukesh was much better in creating problems for Harikrishna. In the end Gukesh just tied down black’s pieces and marched with his king for a famous victory.

Praggnanandhaa found some early tactics as black against Foreest but they proved only enough to guarantee a level opposite coloured Bishops endgame while Abdusattorov had a balanced position right from the word go against Anish Giri.

In the challengers section R Vaishali played out a draw with Benjamin Bok of Holland but Divya Deshmukh lost another game in the event at the hands of Miaoyi Lu of China. Nguyen Thai Dai Van of Czech republic and Dutchman Erwin L’ami share the lead in this section on five points each. Bok and Miaoyi Lu have 4.5 while Vaishali on four points shares the fifth spot.