World Championship challenger Dommaraju Gukesh bounced back from a sedate start to defeat compatriot Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Germany’s Vincent Keymer before holding world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen after Round VI of the Superbet rapid and blitz tournament here on Friday.

However, Praggu, as he is known in the chess fraternity, produced a strong fifth round, defeating Holland’s Anish Giri and he followed it with a win over Keymer in the sixth round.

Norway’s Carlsen shares the lead with Wei Yi of China with eight points apiece while Praggu and Shevchenko share the third spot with seven points each.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi are joint fifth on six points, a full point ahead of Polish Duda Jan-Kryzstof.

With four points, Keymer is in ninth spot in the $175000 prize money tournament, a point clear of Giri.

However, the dream run of Romanian Kirill Shevchenko was ended by Erigaisi, who scored his first victory in the event.

Starting with losses in the first two rounds followed by a lone draw, Gukesh showed pluck to prevail over Praggu in 41 moves.

The middle game arising out of a double fianchetto by white did not offer much scope for Gukesh and his position worsened as Praggu launched a King side attack by advancing his pawns.

The pressure was immense on both and despite getting close to a winning position Praggu faltered and let Gukesh come back strongly.

In the next round, Praggu was on target with some difficult moves to grind down Giri.

PTI