Defending champion and Grandmaster R Vaishali jumped into sole lead in the women`s section as she notched her third straight victory with a win against Olga Bedelka of Austria in the third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss here on Saturday.
On a day when Vantika Agrawal found the going tough and went down to Yuxin Song of China, D Harika was held to a draw by Guo Qi of China. Both Vantika and Harika are on 1.5 points apiece while Vaishali enjoys a half point lead over her nearest rivals.
In the open section, world champion punished some audacious play by Spaniard Daniil Yuffa and moved to 2.5 points out of a possible three.
Playing black, Gukesh opted for the Ragozin defense and was pleasantly surprised in the middle game as Yuffa went berserk with his attack.
Winning a piece, Gukesh had to find some defensive moves but white did not have any serious compensation anyway. The Indian ace won an easy game in the end.
It also turned out to be a day when the perseverance of R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi paid dividends.
Praggnanandhaa outwitted former world championship challenger Boris Gelfand of Israel from what looked like a certain draw.
It was a similar story for Arjun also as he capitalized on an unforced error from Anton Demchenko of Slovenia in the sixth hour of play.