FIDE Grand Swiss Round 3: Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi win; Pragg defeats legend Boris Gelfand after refuting draw offer

Nihal Sarin, what have you done!

The Indian prodigy was winning easily after 42 moves from both players. Then came a blunder that upset the whole run of play and the game ended in a draw!

On move 43, Nihal played rook to d6 which is a move that will haunt him!

This is what the position looked like before Nihal's blunder.

The game eventually ended in a draw in 60 moves.

Another draw for defending champion Vidit Gujrathi in the third round of the Grand Swiss, after he won the first game of the tournament.

Serbian GM Alexandr Predke holds him to a 30-move draw.

Also playing out a draw is Aryan Chopra who holds Iran's Amin Tabatabaei to a stalemate!

What a moment in the game versus Boris Gelfand and Praggnanandhaa. The game seemed to be heading for a draw with both players repeating moves. Pragg's queen and Gelfand's knight do a little dance on the board shuffling: the black queen jumping between e7 and h4 while Gelfand's white knight hopped from f1 to g3. Then, when he just needed to repeat the move one more time for a draw, Pragg opts to move his rook sideways instead of moving the queen to h4!

'Not today,' Pragg seems to be implying to the elder statesman who is of Vishy Anand's era, having battled against the five-time world champion from India many times.

The world champion Gukesh bounces back from the draw in the previous round with a handsome victory over Spain's Daniil Yuffa in 35 moves. The Spaniard was in uncomfortable territory from very early on, after a hasty pawn push.

Here are all the moves from the Gukesh-Daniil Yuffa game

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Bg5 dxc4 7. e4 Bd7 8. Qd1 b5 9. a4 a6 10. e5 h6 11. exf6 hxg5 12. fxg7 Rg8 13. h4?! {Inaccuracy. h3 was best} 13... g4 14. Ng5 Rxg7 15. g3 e5 16. Bg2?! {Inaccuracy. d5 was best} 16... exd4 17. O-O dxc3 18. axb5 axb5 19. Re1+ Be7 20. Rxa8 Qxa8 21. bxc3 Qa3 22. Ne4 Ne5 23. Qd2 Qa6 24. Qd5 f6 25. h5 Be6 26. Nxf6+ Bxf6 27. Rxe5 Re7 28. Rxe6 Qxe6 29. Qxb5+ Kf8 30. Bd5 Qf5 31. Qc6 Kg7 32. Qa8?! {Inaccuracy. Kf1 was best} Qxh5 33. Qg8+ Kh6 34. Qf8+ Kg6 35. Qg8+ Bg7

Ian Nepomniachtchi, who is in Samarkand, chasing the FIDE Candidates spot, has accepted a draw against Saleh AR Salem from the UAE.

Playing with black pieces, Nepo had over an hour on his clock, compared to his opponent, who had just over 30 minutes. But in 32 moves, a handshake was agreed upon.

Elsewhere, Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport also accepted a draw against Aydin Suleymanli.

This means that three of the strongest players in contention --- Nepomniachtchi, MVL and Rapport --- have been held to draws today. Meanwhile, Anish Giri is in a dire situation against Frederik Svane. Here's what the position looks like after 23 moves.

Leon Luke Mendonca has managed to hold Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to a draw in 30 moves. The French grandmaster, rated 2738, is over 100 rating points over the Indian prodigy from Goa, so this is a decent result for Mendonca.

Here's how the game played out

The legend Boris Gelfand holds a slight edge in the game against Praggnanandhaa.

"I think it's very much Boris' type of game," says chess legend Judit Polgar in commentary for Chess24. "He has the patience to go back and forth and maneuver. Don't think there 's a huge advantage for white. But it's better for the player with white."

Both players have similar time on their clocks after 18 moves.

Here's how the game has developed:

World Champion Gukesh is steamrolling his opponent, Spain's Daniil Yuffa, at the moment. Not only does Gukesh have two additional pawns besides both his bishops intact on the board, he also has more than a 15-minute advanatage on the clock as compared to his opponent.

Here are all the 18 moves so far from the Daniil Yuffa vs Gukesh D [Black] game

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Bg5 dxc4 7. e4 Bd7 8. Qd1 b5 9. a4 a6 10. e5 h6 11. exf6 hxg5 12. fxg7 Rg8 13. h4 g4 14. Ng5 Rxg7 15. g3 e5 16. Bg2 exd4 17. O-O dxc3 18. axb5 axb5

After a hasty pawn push from Yuffa (13.h4), Gukesh holds an edge on the eval bar. Gukesh responds with a pawn push of his own, playing 13...g4 threatening his Spanish opponent's knight.

The eval bar shows an advantage of 1.3 for the world champion.

Here are all the 14 moves so far, as Gukesh captures a free, undefended pawn.

1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Bg5 dxc4 7. e4 Bd7 8. Qd1 b5 9. a4 a6 10. e5 h6 11. exf6 hxg5 12. fxg7 Rg8 13. h4 g4 14. Ng5 Rxg7

Gukesh opts for the Ragozin Defense after a Queen's Gambit Declined against Daniil Yuffa.

Here are all the moves so far from the Daniil Yuffa vs Gukesh D [Black] game: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. Nc3 Bb4 5. Qa4+ Nc6 6. Bg5 dxc4 7. e4 Bd7 8. Qd1 b5 9. a4 a6 10. e5

Here's how the game has shaped up so far:

The game between Arjun Erigaisi and Anton Demchenko is the one that is likely to have fireworks! Former European champion Demchenko played one of the best games of the second round yesterday, and today is facing off against Arjun, who Magnus Carlsen once described as the "mad man of chess" in an interview with The Indian Express.

We already have 12 moves from both players in the game, where the Petrov's Defense has made an appearance.

Here are all the moves so far: 1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nf6 3. Nxe5 d6 4. Nf3 Nxe4 5. d4 d5 6. Bd3 Be7 7. O-O Bf5 8. Re1 O-O 9. Nbd2 Nd6 10. Nf1 Bxd3 11. Qxd3 c6 12. Bf4 Na6 13. g3

Here's how the game has shaped up:

Here are who all the 18 players are facing today. India's Vaishali is among the 5 players out of the 160+ players at Samarkand to still be on a full score. She faces Olga Badelka, who is also on a full two points out of two games, today:

Open section round 3 pairings at Grand Swiss

Arjun Erigaisi (1½) vs Anton Demchenko (2)

Boris Gelfand (1½) vs Praggnanandhaa R (1½)

Daniil Yuffa (1½) vs Gukesh D (1½)

Nodirbek Abdusattorov (1½) vs Abhimanyu Puranik (1½)

Leon Luke Mendonca (1½) vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (1½)

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (1½) vs Alexandr Predke (1½)

Nihal Sarin (1½) vs Yuriy Kuzubov (1½)

Aryan Chopra (1) vs Amin Tabatabaei (1)

Raunak Sadhwani (1) vs Andy Woodward (1)

Nils Grandelius (1) vs Aditya Mittal (1)

Dmitrij Kollars (1) vs Pranav V (1)

SL Narayanan (1) vs Nikolas Theodorou (1)

Jakhongir Vakhidov (1) vs Harikrishna Pentala (½)

Divya Deshmukh (½) vs Murali Karthikeyan (0)

Women’s section round 3 pairings at Grand Swiss

Vaishali Rameshbabu (2) vs Olga Badelka (2)

Song Yuxin (1½) vs Vantika Agrawal (1½)

Qi Guo (1) vs Harika Dronavalli (1)

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the third round games of the FIDE Grand Swiss and the FIDE Women's Grand Swiss tournaments from Samarkand.

There are 18 Indians in action at the event, with Vaishali being the only player to win both her games so far.