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Indian Grandmaster (GM) Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa took the joint-lead at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania alongside American GM Fabiano Caruana after the completion of the first three rounds. The 19-year-old defeated Uzbekistan GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a quality endgame in the Grunfeld Defense, to score two points out of possible three after three rounds of action in Romania, while Fabiano Caruana got the better of French GM Alireza Firouzja in the Queen's Gambit Declined game.
During his intense battle, which lasted for 61 moves, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa wasn’t expecting a Grunfeld Defense from Nodirbek Abdusattorov, but he managed to figure out the situation on the board. He rushed the H-pawn up the board before talking about how there was a solution to it, but the Uzbek didn’t know it during the game, which led to his demise.
Six players are in joint third place with 1.5/3 points at Superbet Chess Classic Romania
It led to a lengthy endgame between Praggananandhaa and Abdusattorov, but ultimately, the Indian GM was able to squeeze out a victory, to take the joint-lead in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania at the end of the day. Fabiano Caruana, who also has two points out of possible three to his name, was made to wait till the 73rd move for his victory over Alireza Firouzja with the black pieces after Queen’s Gambit was declined on the board.
While Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana share the joint-lead in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania standings after three rounds of action, there are six players behind them in third place with 1.5 points out of possible three to their names, including Wesley So and world champion Dommaraju Gukesh. The two other players, namely Levon Aronian and Nodirbek Abdusattorov have collected just one point in the competition, and they are joint ninth place in the standings.
