GM Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa remains the sole leader of the event after day three with nine points and zero losses. He is followed in the standings by GM Magnus Carlsen with six points; after him, we find the GMs Jan-Krzysztof Duda with five, Anish Giri with four, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Le Quang Liem and Jorden van Foreest with three.
GM Eric Hansen joined the others with three points after winning a decisive game before having to enter the playoffs. Thus, no tiebreaks at all were played.
Le-Praggnanandhaa: 0.5-2.5
With both players coming from wins on the previous day, Le opted to continue his strike with a Queen’s Pawn Opening and a fianchetto on the kingside. Pawn pushes by both sides followed quickly and stabilized Le’s advantage, but he gave it away with the move 9.Bg5. Praggnanandhaa started putting pressure on his opponent, who kept hurting his own position with rather passive moves.
This thrilling first game came to an abrupt end when
Le described this first game of the match as “an interesting game in which I was at times under pressure … I am happy with his draw, as I feared I would lose this game.”
Praggnanandhaa went on to win his next two games against Le—who defended like a beast—repeating the story we’ve seen these last two days. He again won three tour points and is still unbeaten.
“Today, it was as difficult as in the last two days,” he commented on his success, adding: “I’m having a lot of fun playing these players. Rapid is always fun.”