Indian grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa came up with a spectacular game to down compatriot Vidit Gujrathi in the third round of the Candidates Chess tournament here.

It turned out to be a satisfying day for the brother-sister duo — the only siblings to make to the Candidates ever — as R Vaishali also scored her first victory in the event at the expense of Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria in what was also the lone decisive game in the women’s section.

In the men’s section, D. Gukesh could not dent the solid defences of Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, while Frenchman Firouza Alireza’s extra pawn came to a naught against top seed Fabiano Caruana of the United States.

The other American, Hikaru Nakamura, however, had no difficulty in getting an easy draw as black against Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan.

In the women’s section, Koneru Humpy played out an easy draw with white against Zhongyi Tan, Tinjie Lei of China signed peace with Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia and the other Russian Kateryna Lagno split the point with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.

With 11 rounds still to come in both eight-players double round-robin tournament, Caruana, Gukesh and Nepomniachtchi share the lead on two points apiece in the men’s section.

They are now followed by Gujrathi and Praggnanandhaa on 1.5 points each. Nakamura, Alireza and Abasov complete the line-up another half a point behind.

In the women’s event, Zhongyi Tan with two points remained a half point clear of nearest rival Goryachkina with Humpy, Vaishali, Lagno on their toes with 1.5
points each.

Lei, Muzychuk and Salimova share the sixth spot with one point each in their kitty.

Praggnanandhaa, or Praggu as he is commonly referred to, chose an accelerated Schielmann defence out of a Ruy Lopez that is seldom seen in top GM games. Praggu is known to spring surprises and Gujrathi realised this very early in the opening.

The game fluctuated in the early middle game between an equal position and sometimes favouring Gujrathi but it was not easy to find all the best moves every time he was posed a question.

In the end Gujrathi was left to play 11 moves in about five minutes with the position not favouring him and as is often the case, the ticking away clock took its toll on the Indian. Praggnandhaa quickly landed himself with a winning rook and pawns endgame and there was no hopes left soon for Gujrathi. The game lasted 45 moves.

PTI