World Champion D Gukesh escaped with a draw while his fellow-Indian R Praggnanandhaa scored a big win to take joint-lead after the third round of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in Bucharest on Friday.

Gukesh drew with Bogdan-Daniel Deac in a game that presented both players with winning chances. Gukesh, playing white, had an edge initially, but local favourite Deac turned the game in his favour in the endgame. Having pushed Gukesh's King to a corner, Deac had to play a series of optimum moves to upset the World Champion, but he misplayed a bishop move to present Gukesh with perpetual checks for a draw.

The India No. 1 drew with Praggnanandhaa and Uzbek star Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the first two rounds, taking his tally to 1.5 points.

Praggnanandhaa, who drew his second game with Fabiano Caruana on Thursday, played a brilliant endgame against Abdusattorov to post his first win of the event. He shares the lead (2 points) with Caruana, who defeated Alireza Firouzja in round three.

Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa are the two Indians in the 10-player event that is held in a single round-robin format. Wesley So, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Jan-Krzysztof Duda are the other players in the competition.

The event follows a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment from move one.

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