China's Ding Liren was crowned on Sunday as the 17th world chess champion in a tense match against Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in the last chapter of an odds-defying sequence of events.
D Gukesh played out a creditable draw against top seed Fabiano Caruana but slipped a rung to the joint second position.
Ding, who could become the first Chinese male to win the world title, began the tournament admitting he felt like there was "something wrong" with his mind.
Grandmaster Nihal Sarin played out a quick and effortless draw with Matthias Bluebaum of Germany to share the lead with the German on six points after the end of the eighth round of FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Friday.
The Norwegian beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia on Friday in Dubai.
R Praggnanandhaa missed out twice on cashing in on winning positions, ending up at the bottom of the table
Defending champion Magnus Carlsen was disqualified from the World Rapid and Blitz Championship 2024 in Wall Street, New York, on Saturday for violating FIDE's dress code.
Having lost three and drawn three coming into the third and final day of rapid, Praggnanadhaa lost to Lenier Dominguez of the US in the seventh round.
D Gukesh started off on a positive note, beating Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania
Top-seed Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) led the field at the end of the Rapid with 11 points. He is followed by Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France), Duda and Saric on 10 points.
The 17-year-old Gukesh is in joint lead with Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi.
'We can't care about the reasons or whatever happened to Hans. We don't care. We have to focus on our tournament.'
Caruana became the sole leader and also got back to number two in live world rankings.
With all games ending in draws, the lead positions remained unchanged and Gukesh continued to be at the top of the tables along with Fabiano Caruana of United States who drew a keenly contested game against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.
Defending champion Ding Liren says the in-form Dommaraju Gukesh is the big favourite to win their World Chess title showdown in November.
Carlsen was fined $ 200 for wearing jeans, which are "explicitly prohibited" under tournament regulations
Giving prominence to experience over youthful exuberance, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand feels the three Indian participants remain far from winning the Candidates chess title, saying they "should first settle into the tournament."
The Indian challenge in the women's section might already have ended as Zhongyi stood firmly ahead on five points while Goryachkina had 4.5 points in her kitty.
The triumph entitles Gukesh a clash against reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the last quarter of the year.
India's D Gukesh bounced back with a finely crafted game to outwit compatriot Vidit Gujrathi and regain his joint lead with Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after the eighth round in the Candidates chess tournament in Toronto on Friday.
In an event completely dominated by the Chinese, Ju Wenjun went on to snare the world title, defeating compatriot Lei Tingjie 3.5-2.5.
Arjun Erigaisi briefly reached a career-high live rating of 2771.2 earlier this week and is the only Indian since Vishwanathan Anand to do so.
This is Koneru Humpy's second World Rapid title after she had triumphed in the 2019 edition in Moscow.
With seven rounds still to come in the first super tournament of the year, Anish Guru maintained his sole lead on 4.5 points out of a possible six and he is now trailed by Iranian turned Frenchman Firouza Alireza who is on 4 points.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh shot into sole lead after defeating Firouzja Alireza of France in the 13th and penultimate round of Candidates' Chess tournament in Toronto on Saturday, his quest for the extraordinary placing him on the cusp of becoming the youngest ever World Championship contender.
Viswanathan Anand trumped former World champion Garry Kasparov in the much-awaited contest of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour in Zagreb on Saturday.
Russian Nepomniachtchi inflicts sixth defeat on Indian
Arjun Erigaisi breathed a sigh of relief after receiving his US visa to compete in the upcoming World Rapid and Blitz Championships in New York
Erigaisi also requested External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya and the All India Chess Federation (AICF) to help him get the visa.
Pragg, Gujrathi out of contention
Gukesh to clash with Alireza on what promises to be a photo finish
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand started with a fluent win over Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest before faltering against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the second round of the rapid event in the Croatia Grand Chess Tour tournament, in Zagreb, on Wednesday.
Teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India became the youngest chess world champion by beating defending champion Ding Liren of China on Thursday
After a win over Hikaru Nakamura in his opener, the Norwegian went down to Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi in the second round. A draw with Wesley So in the third left the world no.1 in fifth spot.
Chess governing body FIDE's general assembly agreed to consider lifting parts of a ban on Russian and Belarusian players imposed after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022, in a vote on Sunday in Budapest.
World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen was in stunning form, winning all nine of his games to take a significant lead. He has 20 points out of a possible 27 going into the second half of the blitz on Sunday.
Gukesh had a fine run, beating Constantin Lupulescu and Saric after drawing with Richard Rapport in the day's first game.
Gukesh tried his hands at the Ruy Lopez as white but did not get much against Praggnanandhaa. Both the teenagers have been showing great skills here against the world's best and there was nothing to choose between them when pieces flew off the board in tandem. The game was drawn in 41 moves.
Indian Grand Master Pentala Harikrishna beat Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in his eighth round tie in the Moscow FIDE Grand Prix in Moscow.
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh draws with defending champion Ding Liren in second game of World Chess Championship in Singapore.
