Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh register impressive wins; Cheperinov jumps to top spot

India's young guns R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh posted impressive wins in the fourth round of the Masters categoryy in the 18th Gibraltar Chess festival here as Georgia's Ivan Cheperinov jumped into sole lead with an all-win record.

Praggnanandhaa, who suffered a shock loss to compatriot P V Nandhidhaa in the opening round, has bounced back in style and on Friday won his fourth-round match against Russian Voldar Murzin, like him a teen prodigy, to take his tally to three points.

Gukesh put it across Dutch player Peter Lombaers in 36 moves to join Praggnanandhaa on three points.

Another Indian to shine was young GM Vaibhav Suri (ELO rating 2593), who held world No.7 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (France, ELO rating 2770) to a creditable draw.

The top-seed Shakriar Mammedyarov (Azerbaijan) dropped half a point in his game against Leondro Krysa of Argentina.

The top-rated Indians in the event, B Adhiban and K Sasikiran had mixed luck. The former was forced to share the point with compatriot M .