Three of the four Indian Open team players are in line for gold and silver medals for the individual performance.
Ding will face a stern challenge from the 18-year-old Gukesh, who "doesn't make any mistakes at all" and has had a terrific run in 2024.
The coin toss gave the Alaskan Knights the white pieces, with 20 minutes per player on the clock -- 40 minutes are alloted a match.
Praggnanandhaa turned things around in the all-Indian battle after his opponent blundered
Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has been roped in by IndianOil and would be receiving all the backing from the PSU major
In the women's event, India's D Harika drew with Nino Bastiashvili (Georgia) to move up to four points. She is in joint third place with six others.
The 18-year-old also created history as he surpassed the legendary Viswanathan Anand to take the No 1 spot among Indian chess players in the live ratings.
By becoming only the second Indian after legendary Vishwanathan Anand to reach the semi-finals of the World Cup, Praggnanandhaa booked a spot in the Candidates event in 2024 to determine the challenger to Ding Liren.
Young Indian Grandmaster Nihal Sarin on Thursday emerged champion in the Masters' section of the Serbia Open Chess Championship in Belgrade.
Both Harikrishna and Carlsen drew all their four games on the opening day of the tournament as matches ended late on Saturday.
D Gukesh put it across Serbia's Alexandr Predke in the fourth round for his first win in the Chennai Grand Masters chess
Local star D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi played out a draw in the second round of the Chennai Grand Masters Chess Championship 2023 in Chennai on Saturday.
The victory and a full point took Gukesh to 3.5 points and gave him a clear lead in the eight-man field.
India's Arjun Erigaisi defeated top-seed Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran with black pieces in the sixth round of the Chennai Grandmasters Chess Championship in Chennai on Wednesday to move into joint second spot in the standings.
Indian GM was impressive against a fancied and higher rated opponent
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh won the Chennai Grand Masters Chess Championship title in Chennai on Thursday, edging out compatriot Arjun Erigaisi on the tie-break after they finished equal on points.
Indian GM Praggnanandhaa wins Super GM chess tourney in Hungary
Harikrishna started with a draw against England's Michael Adams and posted wins over Alexander Donchenko and Noel Studer of Switzerland in the second and third rounds respectively.
Indian GM D Gukesh overwhelmed Dutch player Max Warmerdam for his third victory on the trot and elevated himself to a joint lead after the seventh round of the Tata Steel Masters Chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands on Sunday.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa advanced to the Chess World Cup final after outclassing Fabiano Caruana in the semi-finals in Baku.
After the draw with Iranian turned French player Firouza, Gukesh has seven points for his sole second spot.
In round 3, the Indian defeated German GM Vincent Keymar with the game decided in the rook endgame after Praggnanandhaa managed to win two pawns, following which Keymar resigned.
Anand, who first made it to the World's top-10 in July 1991, has remained India's top-ranked player in all published lists since January 1987.
Viswanathan Anand shot into the lead at the end of three rounds of the Rapid segment in the third leg of the 2023 Grand Chess Tour
Arjun Erigaisi is in joint lead with 4.5 points from five rounds along with World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Fedoseev after holding the Norwegian superstar in round five.
Although he noted that the game of chess has changed in recent times, he was willing to offer advice to the new generation.
Indian Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi drew with Richard Rapport of Hungary in the ninth round to be in joint third place with 5.5 points in the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
The other five games, hard fought, were drawn. World No.1 Magnus Carlsen and Andrey Esipenko trail the leaders by half a point.
Praggnanandhaa, who has reached the summit clash featuring legendary five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen, had none other than the iconic Gary Kasparov, acknowledging the Indian GM's mother's role
Young Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa went down fighting to World No. 2 Ding Liren in the tie-break of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament final on Friday.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa opened his campaign in the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of Champions Chess Tour, with a 2.5-1.5 win over the world's top junior player Alireza Firouzja in Miami.
Arjun also remained unbeaten through all the nine rounds and finished half a point ahead of Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi went down against world No 1 Magnus Carlsen in the final of the Julius Baer Generation Cup online rapid chess tournament, losing the second match 0-2.
Vidit Gujrathi suffers first defeat
In the blitz event played prior to the Classical, Anand had shocked world champion Carlsen in round seven on the way to a fourth-place finish.
Arjun Erigaisi scored a fine win over speed game specialist Quang Liem Le but his compatriot Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was outplayed by World No 1 Magnus Carlsen in the penultimate round of the Meltwater Champions Tour Finals.
India's legend Viswanathan Anand's winning run in the Classical event of the Norway Chess tournament came to an end after suffering a loss against American Wesley So in the fourth round in Stavanger on Saturday.
Young Indian International Master V Pranav finished with 6.5 points after losing to Predke in the final round.
The 12-year-old drew with GM Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukraine in the ninth and penultimate round of the Masters section in the Hastings International Chess Congress.
The eight-player all-play-all tournament is the American finale of Champions Chess Tour. There is US$7,500 at stake for each match won at the event.
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