D Gukesh ties with Magnus Carlsen at Super United Chess

World champion D Gukesh came up with two straight victories to tie for the top spot along side world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway, Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland and American Wesley So at the end of the first three rounds of Super United Rapid and Blitz Chess tournament, a part of the Grand Chess Tour.

Starting the day with a loss against Duda, Gukesh overpowered a reckless Alireza Firouzja of France before defeating compatriot R Praggnanandhaa to reach on four points out of a possible six.

Carlsen beat Wesley So and drew his remaining two games against local star Ivan Saric and Duda to match Gukesh on points, while Wesley was the only other player involved in all decisive games, apart from Gukesh, as he put it across his US compatriot Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri of Holland.

In-form Praggnanandhaa had a tough day in office as he drew with Firouzja and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan with the loss against Gukesh costing him dearly.

With six rounds still to come in the rapid section, and 18 thereafter in the blitz, it's early days but Carlsen still remains the firm favourite in his second favourite version after freestyle chess.

With four players in front, Giri and Saric are close behind with three points apiece and then a group of four players -- Caruana, Abdusattorov, Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa -- follow then with two points each.

In the rapid section, two points are awarded for a victory while in blitz there will be one point for each win.

Gukesh was not disheartened after his first-round loss and came up with a fine effort. "Duda just got a nice position and played well," said Gukesh after the end of the day.

Firouzja got a bit impatient against the Indian, while Praggnanandhaa simply blundered.

Carlsen was held by Saric in a game played well by the Croatian, and his second-round victory was pretty much Carlsensque as he ground down Wesley in the endgame that lasted 75 moves.

Standing after round 3: 1-4: Magnus Carlsen (Nor); Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol); Wesley So (USA), D Gukesh (Ind) 4 each; 5-6: Ivan Saric (Cro); Anish Giri (Ned) 3 each; 7-10; Fabiano Caruana (USA); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb); Alireza Firouzja (Fra); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind) 2 each.