D Gukesh put his opening-round blues behind him and scored an excellent victory over former world rapid champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Sinquefield Cup.
Grandmasters Raunak Sadhwani and S L Narayanan, India's two best hopes, were held to draws by Daniel Barrish of South Africa and Steven Salas Rojas of Peru in the first game of the opening round of World Chess Cup, in Panjim, on Saturday.
Winning three and drawing the remaining six games, Firouzja remained undefeated throughout the event.
On current form, D Gukesh is the favourite to win the World Chess Championship title against his Chinese opponent, Ding Liren, believes Indian teenage Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa.
With nine rounds still to come in the blitz event, Wei Yi has amassed 20.5 points with seven wins on the first day of blitz. Ending the day with 7.5 out of a possible nine, Yi, seems like a man possessed and unless a hurricane hits him, is poised to win the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour.
The FIDE World Cup 2025 is coming to Goa from October 30 to November 27, 2025!
Fabiano Caruana defended his Superbet Classic title by winning all three rapid games in a thrilling four-way tiebreaker
Caruana became the sole leader and also got back to number two in live world rankings.
Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh, who has also qualified for the Women's Candidates, has opted out of the women's section to compete with the best in business.
R Praggnanandhaa navigated his match against the reigning world champion Ding Liren with remarkable ease
Vaishali defeated Muzychuk for the second time in the event in the Armageddon. It was a finely played Classical game wherein neither players could reach an advantage but in the Armageddon Vaishali took advantage of her better placed rooks to call the shots.
Nakamura, who started off as the favourite in the blitz section, is in sixth spot on 13.5 points, ahead of tour leader and compatriot Fabiano Caruana who has 13 points.
The trophy was unveiled during a colourful opening ceremony which was attended by Union Sports Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Goa Chief Minister Pramod Sawant and FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich.
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa had drawn their previous three encounters in this format.
Caruana kept his slender half point lead going in to the final round in the 10-player round-robin tournament, a part of the Grand Chess tour.
Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana under Classical but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.
D Gukesh played out a draw with tournament leader and top seed Fabiano Caruana
Magnus Carlsen of Norway delivered a flawless performance on the final day to clinch the title in the Open section
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa crashed through the defenses of compatriot Vidit Gujrathi but D Gukesh suffered a shock defeat from a position of strength against Czech Republic's David Navara of in the fifth round of the Prague Masters in Prague.
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.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a flier and defeated Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon game in the first round of Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Tuesday.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored a massive, hard-earned victory over world number two Fabiano Caruana of the United States and made his way to the top 10 of world rankings after the end of fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger.
Grand Chess Tour: Gukesh in joint lead with Carlsen and Wesley So after day one
Looking to assert his supremacy across formats, reigning world champion D Gukesh of India began his campaign in the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, with a crushing victory over France's Etienne Bacrot in the first round.
Chennai's Velammal Vidyalaya, the alma mater of the youngest reigning World champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, won the gold medal at the World Schools Team Chess Championship in Virginia, United States.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa produced a spectacular game to get the better of fellow-Indian Vidit Gujrathi in the third round of the Candidates Chess tournament in Toronto on Saturday.
World Champion D Gukesh suffered his second straight defeat at the FIDE Grand Swiss, losing to Greece's Nikolas Theodorou in the sixth round in Samarkand, Uzbekistan on Tuesday.
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.
World champion D Gukesh's struggles continued as he slumped to a third successive defeat, losing to 16-year-old Turkish Grandmaster Ediz Gurel in the seventh round of the FIDE Grand Swiss in Samarkand, Uzbekistan, on Thursday.
Gukesh Dommaraju played black but managed to hold on for a gutsy draw to split points in the Prague Masters Chess tournament.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa lost to World Champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tie-breaker after the two played out a draw under normal time control in the second round.
Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control.
R Praggnanandhaa missed out twice on cashing in on winning positions, ending up at the bottom of the table
'It was 2 am, my parents were asleep. I woke my dad up and said: 'I won'.' 'He said, 'Good' and then went back to sleep because he had to go to office the next day.'
D Gukesh started off on a positive note, beating Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania
American Abhimanyu Mishra, 16, became the youngest-ever player in the history of chess to beat a reigning World Champion in the classical format.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa committed a time-pressure blunder as he suffered defeat at the hands of Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran in the second round of Prague Masters Chess tournament in Prague.
Neither current World Champion D Gukesh nor former world champion Vishy Anand are the top rated Indian chess player.
Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali jumped into sole lead in the women's section
World Junior champion Pranav Venkatesh scored a crushing victory over Grandmaster Alan Pichot of Spain to win the Fujairah Global Superstars chess tournament.
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