Sinquefield Cup: Pragg holds Liren, Gukesh plays out draw

St Louis (USA), August 26

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa navigated his match against the reigning world champion Ding Liren with remarkable ease, holding him to a draw in the sixth round of the Sinquefield Cup, the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour.

World Championship challenger D Gukesh also played out another enterprising draw with France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave while Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi suffered a shocking loss, going down to Fabiano Caruana of United States in just 25 moves.

The sixth round saw no other surprises as the games between Anish Giri of Netherlands and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan and Alireza Firouzja of France versus local star Welsey So ended in draws.

With just three rounds remaining, Caruana seems determined to give Firouzja a run for his money even though the former still leads the fray on 4 points.

Caruana and Wesley So are on 3.5 points each.

Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Vachier-Lagrave and Liren share the fourth spot on three points each with Nepomniachtchi and Abdusattorov following them a half point behind.

Anish Giri stands last on two points in the $3,50,000 prize money tournament.

Gukesh has been trying hard in almost every game but so far lady luck has not smiled on him. The game was drawn vide stalemate after 72 moves.

Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat much against Liren, who has been pretty solid in the tournament and is not taking much risk ahead of the World Championship match in November.