Prague, 04 March (H.S.): Reigning FIDE World Champion D. Gukesh suffered a shocking defeat to compatriot Aravind Chithambaram in the sixth round of the Prague Chess Festival Masters, plunging to last place and exposing post-title struggles.Chithambaram, the defending champion, deployed the Sicilian Defense with Black, weathering Gukesh's middlegame pawn sacrifice for complexity.

A critical blunder on move 40 under time pressure sealed Gukesh's fate—the day's sole decisive result amid four draws.Dutch GM Jorden van Foreest leads solo on 4.5/6 after drawing local hero David Navara; Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov shares second, half a point back, with David Anton Guijarro lurking at 3.5.

Women's World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh and veteran Surya Shekhar Ganguly drew their Challenger games against Thomas Beerdsen and Daniil Yuffa. With three rounds left, the title race intensifies.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar