Zagreb, July 2 (IANS) The two Indian stars had contrasting starts to the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia, the third event of the Grand Chess Tour, as Praggnanandhaa placed joint second, while world champion D. Gukesh was tied for sixth place at the end of the third round of the rapid section.

Praggnanandhaa began with an impressive victory over Vincent Keymer before drawing against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Gukesh, meanwhile, suffered an opening-round defeat to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave but responded immediately with a win over Ivan Saric.

The two then faced each other in the final round of the day, where they split the point. As a result, Praggnanandhaa finishes Day 1 tied for 2nd place with 4/6, while Gukesh is tied for 6th on 3/6, with six rapid rounds still to play.

Round 3 wrapped up an exciting opening day of the Super Rapid & Blitz Croatia, with Alireza Firouzja remaining the man to catch, with a sole lead with five points.

Just a few weeks ago, Firouzja was forced to withdraw from the Grand Chess Tour event in Romania after suffering an ankle injury, even playing two of his games from a separate room before making the difficult decision to withdraw from the event.

In the Croatia leg, the clash between tournament leader Firouzja and Anish Giri ended peacefully, allowing Firouzja to keep the sole lead. Keymer continued his comeback after an opening-round loss by defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov, while Bogdan-Daniel Deac scored his first victory of the event against Ivan Sari, while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave split the point with Jorden van Foreest.

The tournament combines two fast-paced disciplines: a 9-round single round-robin rapid tournament (played at a time control of 25 minutes plus a 10-second increment from move one) and an 18-round double round-robin blitz tournament (played at 5 minutes plus a 2-second increment from move one).

Rapid wins count for 2 points and draws for 1 point, while Blitz wins count for 1 point and draws for half point.

–IANS

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