Prague Chess: Aravindh takes solo lead; Praggnanandhaa follows closely

India's Aravindh Chithambaram, on Friday, took the solo lead at the 2025 Prague Masters as he beat China's Wei Yi in the third round of play.

Playing with the white pieces, Aravindh registered his second consecutive win of the tournament and now has 2.5 points out of a possible three.

He is closely followed by Germany's Vincent Keymer and fellow Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa with 2 points apiece.

Aravindh, who had started his tournament with a draw in the first round, seems to have grown in confidence over the last two days.

The 25-year-old from Chennai managed to pounce on the calculation error made by Wei Yi in the middle game and pressed home the advantage. The Chinese Grandmaster resigned after 44 moves.

The win helped Aravindh climb up to world No 16 in the live rankings. He is currently rated 2740.

Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa also registered a win with the white pieces on Friday.

The teenager made quick work of Thai Nguyen to register his first win of the tournament.

While Praggnanandhaa will go up against Keymer in the next round, Aravindh will face off against GM Sam Shankland of the United States.

Divya loses

Elsewhere in the Challengers section, India's IM Divya Deshmukh suffered her second loss of the tournament.

Playing with the black pieces, the 19-year-old Deshmukh was outplayed in the Queen's Gambit Declined by Uzbek GM Nodirbek Yakubboev. The Indian resigned after 33 moves.

Deshmukh will now face off against China's GM Ma Qun in the fourth round on Saturday.