Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa Share the Top Spot at Tata Steel Chess Masters

Following an exciting day at the Tata Steel Masters, World Champion D Gukesh and Jorden van Foreest of Holland played to a draw, while Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated Alexey Sarana of Serbia to share the lead.

After the 12th and penultimate round, Praggnanandhaa achieved his third straight victory to bring his total to an impressive 8.5 points, matching his countryman Gukesh.

With the incredible chance that one of them could win the title for the first time in Tata Steel Masters history, the two Indians are now set for an exciting finish in the prestigious tournament.

Arjun Erigaisi defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, who was aiming for the top spot after the eleventh round, and is now virtually out of the running for the title with 7.5 points.

Another Queen's gambit declined opening involved Praggnanandhaa. He was playing with white pieces this time, though.

Sarana went for an early advance of king side pawns and then castled on the queen side, which was a significant change from his previous round match against Caruana. Praggnanandhaa did not let us down when it came time to attack the Black King.

Praggnanandhaa was at his best in tactical complications when he sacrificed a piece to tear apart the black's king position, and it was entertaining to watch what happened next.

After the game, Pragg remarked, "I saw this piece sacrifice, but then I realized it could be a long game."

A queen sacrifice that resulted in force checkmate ended the game.

Foreest, who can play the spoiler on any given day, challenged Gukesh to a game of shifting fortunes.

When Foreest looked ready for a repetition early in the Queen pawn game as white, he announced his intentions to be peaceful. Gukesh turned down the offer, though, and there were still plenty of pieces in the game.

Foreest gave up a rook for a knight, but Gukesh reciprocated on the 39th move, his clock running out. Gukesh had won the position, but exact calculation was required, and the Indian made a mistake here, giving his opponent a significant comeback.

Foreest chose to go for perpetual checks in the heavy piece endgame, not fully realizing that he had abruptly turned the tables.

Nodirbek Abdusattorov's hopes of taking first place were dashed when Arjun Erigaisi finally showed his mettle. The Indian had white pieces in the game's Nimzo-Indian Defense, and Abdusattorov had few opportunities to upset the equilibrium due to his choice of Capablanca variation.

Abdusattorov committed unnecessary complications in the early middle game and ultimately made a mistake on the king side. Arjun gained two bishops for a rook after first winning a pawn. Using exact calculations, he resolved the problem.

In other matches, P Harikrishna drew with Vincent Keymer of Germany, and Leon Luke Mendonca shared the point with the United States' top seed, Fabiano Caruana.

With Gukesh facing a revived Arjun and Praggnanandhaa taking on Keymer, the conclusion could be thrilling. The winner will be determined by the play-off of the shorter duration game if both boards have a drawn result.

In the challengers' section, Divya Deshmukh was defeated by Benjamin Bok of Holland, and R Vasihali lost to Ediz Gurel of Turkey to stay on five points.