Gukesh holds Caruana; Gujrathi falters again

D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi

Grandmaster D Gukesh did well to hold top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana to a draw but Vidit Gujrathi suffered another defeat at the hands of Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in the fourth round of the Candidates chess tournament now underway here.

On a day when R Praggnanandhaa played out an uneventful draw with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States, Nijat Abasov of Azerbaijan fought hard to split the point with Firouzja Alireza of France to stay in contention in the eight-player double round-robin event that decides the challenger for the next world championship.

Nepomniachtchi became the first sole leader in the event on three points following his second victory with white pieces and he is now followed by Caruana and Gukesh on 2.5 points apiece. Praggnanandhaa is not far behind on two points holding the fourth spot while Gujrathi, Abasov, Alireza and Nakamura have an identical 1.5 points each.

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In the women's section, R Vaishali made sure her streak matches with that of younger sibling Praggnanandhaa and played out a draw with rating favourite Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia but Koneru Humpy succumbed to her first defeat at the hands of lowest seed and youngest participant Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria.

Zhongyi Tan maintained her sole lead on three points following a draw with Kateryna Lagno of Russia while Tingjie Lei of China signed peace with Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.

With Tan in front, Goryachkina remains on her heels on 2.5 points and another half point adrift is the trio of Vaishali, Salimova and Lagno. Humpy slipped to joint sixth spot on 1.5 points along with Muzychuk and Lei.

Gukesh faced the in-vogue Italian opening as black against Caruana and the players battled it out in the main variation.

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