Zagreb: Following three days of fast-paced chess, world champion D. Gukesh is in the lead at the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz event, which is a component of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour. He scored 14 points out of 18 before moving on to the game’s blitz phase.

With 14 points, Gukesh topped the leaderboard on Friday. Jan-Krzysztof Duda came in second with 11 points, while Magnus Carlsen came in third with 10 points.

Carlsen started the third day with a win, but he was only able to draw twice, keeping him just behind the leaders. Fabiano Caruana and R. Praggnanandhaa are tied for fourth position with nine points each. Wesley So, Anish Giri, and Alireza Firouzja are all tied with eight points each.

As they neared a virtually sealed middlegame on Day 3, Gukesh shook hands with Dutch GM Anish Giri after a quiet draw. Ivan Aric of Croatia was the opponent in the day’s second match, which also ended in a tie. After two draws, they finally overcame Wesley in the day’s last game to finish with 14 points.

No. 1 in the world Magnus Carlsen had a promising start to the last day after beating Fabiano Caruana in his first match. However, his hopes of reducing the deficit were dashed by a following draw with Nodirbek Abdusattorov, and he then drew with Anish Giri in the day’s last match.

R. Praggnanandhaa, the other Indian on the court, did not perform as well. He earned nine points total by tying seven of his nine games and winning only one, against Ivan Saric.

Gukesh had an early defeat in the first round, losing to Jan-Krzysztof Duda, which put a difficult start to his career. But this just led to a remarkable change. With five consecutive victories, including a brilliant victory against Carlsen in Round 4, Gukesh took control of the scoreboard.