Gukesh, the second youngest player ever to compete at the prestigious Candidates tournament, is now the joint leader in the Open category with Ian Nepomniachtchi at 3.5 points.

Meanwhile, Gukesh’s compatriots Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi were both held to draws by heavily favoured opponents of the Candidates tournament. Both players were in the driver’s seat at various points of their games, but could not press on to seize the victory. While Pragg was held to a draw by two-time Candidates winner Ian Nepomniachtchi, Vidit was held by World No 2 Fabiano Caruana. In the Praggnanandhaa R vs Nepomniachtchi game, the Indian teenager had forced the Russian under massive time pressure with his excellent opening prep.

Over in the women’s section, India’s Vaishali Rameshbabu and Humpy Koneru were also held to draws by Anna Muzychuk and Aleksandra Goryachkina respectively.

For Vidit, the draw means that he has managed to arrest a streak of defeats: he lost his last two games after defeating Hikaru Nakamura in the second round.

While all the women’s games ended in draws, Hikaru Nakamura finally got his first victory at the tournament, beating Alireza Firouzja.

Scroll down to check out our live coverage of the fifth round of the Candidates

INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the Round 5 Candidates game between Gukesh and Nijat Abasov below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed: