Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi scored crushing victories, while D. Gukesh held on to the joint top spot with a draw in a brilliant sixth-round outing for the Indian men’s team at the Candidates Chess tournament here.

Pragnanandhaa prevailed over Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan, while Gujrathi got the better of Frenchman Alireza. Gukesh’s draw came against American Hikaru Nakamura.

With eight rounds still remaining, the 17-year-old Gukesh and Ian Nepomniachtchi continue to share the lead with four points each.

Praggnanandhaa shares the third spot with American Fabiano Caruana on 3.5 points and Gujrathi is on the joint fifth spot alongside Nakamura with three points.

Russian Nepomniachtchi played out a draw with the top-seeded Caruana.

There was disappointment for India in the women’s competition as R. Vaishali suffered a reversal, losing to Kateryna Lagno of Russia. Koneru Humpy also lost, to Tingjie
Lei of China.