FIDE Candidates 2026: Praggnanandhaa suffers first defeat in round 3

GM Praggnanandhaa faced his first defeat of the tournament in the third round of the FIDE Candidates, conceding the lead in Cyprus on Tuesday.

With this loss, Praggnanandhaa slipped to joint third place with 1.5 points, and is now a point behind the joint leaders Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Javokhir Sindarov (UZB).

Sindarov, having the black pieces, put a lot of pressure on Pragg from the start in the Queen's Gambit Declined Variation. However, he wasn't able to find the breakthrough in the position.

But then, Pragg made a big blunder under time pressure, leaving a bishop hanging, which helped Sindarov to comfortably close out the game in 40 moves.

On Wednesday, Pragg will take on Matthias Bluebaum of Germany in the fourth round with the black pieces, hoping to return to winning ways.

Divya Deshmukh survives a scare

GM Divya Deshmukh played her third consecutive draw in the FIDE Women's Candidates after grinding out a draw in round-3 against Aleksandra Goryachkina.

Divya, who was playing with the black pieces, was at a slight disadvantage in the rook-pawn endgame of a Sicilian Defence against Goryachkina.

However, the young Indian kept up the pressure and did not lose hope and then under time pressure, Goryachkina committed a few inaccuracies, leading to a completely exchanged position and a draw.

Vaishali also played her third consecutive draw, holding Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine in a high-quality game where both players maintained accuracies above 98 per cent.

Both the Indians are now in joint third place with 1.5 points, half a point behind the two leaders Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) and Kateryna Lagno (RUS).