Sinquefield Cup: Praggnanandhaa draws with Wesley, Gukesh out of contention

St Louis: Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa kept himself in hunt for an overall top four finish in the Grand Chess Tour after he drew with Wesley So of the United States in the eighth and penultimate round of the Sinquefield Cup here.

The reigning world champion D Gukesh was also held to a draw by USA’s Levon Aronian but the Indian went out of contention in the ten-players round robin tournament.

Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ensured a draw with white pieces against USA’s Fabiano Caruana, who made it to the grand finale with his first-place ranking, irrespective of the result in the final round.

The top four in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings will also qualify for the finals to be held in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which will be introduced from this year.

Apart from Vachier-Lagrave, Aronian, Caruana and Praggnanandhaa are firm contenders for the finals.

Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa and Caruana stayed half a point clear of the field, taking themselves up to 5.5 points from eight games.

Behind them by half a point are Wesley and Aronian, who both have a lead of similar margin over USA’s Samuel Sevian, Duda Jan-Kryszstof of Poland and Vachier-Lagrave.

With 3.5 points, Gukesh is positioned eighth in the standings ahead of Alireza Firouzja (3) of France and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan with 2.5.

Praggnanandhaa faced the Two Knights defence from Wesley out of an Italian opening and the American followed the established theory to sacrifice a pawn for counter play.

Praggnanandhaa remained a pawn plus and exchanged pieces at regular intervals, but at one point, the extra material did not count for much due to a slight bad pawn structure.

Wesley found the right manoeuvres to keep his pieces active enough. The game was a draw through repetition with players realising there was not much left to play for.

Gukesh drew with Aronian in an eventful game arising out of a Queen pawn opening. The Indian appeared to be slightly better in the early middle game but his opponent was not far behind.

Aronian took his passed pawn on the queenside to the seventh rank and Gukesh had to part his rook for a minor piece to stop it. It was eventually bare-kings on the board after 77 moves.

Results round 8: Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB, 2.5) beat Alireza Firouzja (FRA, 3); R Praggnanandhaa (IND, 5) drew with Wesley So (USA, 4.5); Samuel Sevian (USA, 4) drew with Duda Jan-Krzysztof (POL, 4); D Gukesh (IND, 3.5) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 4.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5).