Sinquefield Cup: Gukesh, Pragg play out draws

Saint Louis (USA), August 28

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India’s Grandmasters D Gukesh and R Praggnanadhaa played out their eighth draw in as many games at the Sinquefield Cup, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.

While World Championship challenger Gukesh signed peace with Anish Giri of Netherlands in just 23 moves, Praggnanadhaa too followed suit and drew with local favourite Fabiano Caruana in 28 moves.

With all the games ending in draws in the eighth round, Alireza Firouzja of France won the Grand Chess Tour and became entitled to a $100,000 bonus after his successful stint throughout.

In the eighth round, Firouzja played out the longest game that also ended peacefully after 80 moves against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi.

In the two other games of the day in the 10-player double round-robin tournament, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan split the point with Ding Liren of China and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France drew with Wesley So of United States.

With one round to go, Alireza took his tally to an unassailable 5.5 points out of eight games.