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R Praggnanandhaa holds Vincent Keymer to stay joint leader at the Super Chess Classic, as Anish Giri and Jorden Van Foreest score key victories.
Indian Chess Grand Master R Praggnanandhaa (X)
Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Vincent Keymer of Germany to stay in the joint lead after the third round of the Super Chess Classic, part of the Grand Chess Tour.
After a well-deserved victory over Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan in the previous round, Praggnanandhaa took his tally to two points out of a possible three. He now shares the lead with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, the Dutch duo of Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri, along with Keymer.
With half the ten-player field sharing the lead, Americans Fabiano Caruana and Wesley So have both drawn all their games to be on 1.5 points, while Iranian-turned-Frenchman Alireza Firouzja and local star Deac Bogdan-Daniel both have half a point apiece.
For Praggnanandhaa, having the white pieces did not matter much. Keymer has been a consistent performer among the top players for quite some time and on this day, too was in his element, giving little chance to the Indian.
Praggnanandhaa went for the Capablanca variation against the Nimzo-Indian, and Keymer sacrificed a pawn early in the opening to restore parity. As the game unfolded, the players reached a rook and minor piece endgame in which Pragg’s extra pawn was effectively neutralised by a perfect blockade, and the game was drawn after 64 moves.
Anish Giri proved yet again why no one should take him lightly as he scored his first victory in the event over Alireza Firouzja. The King’s Indian was the preferred choice of the French GM, and Giri obtained a stronghold leading to a small sacrifice, where Firouzja gave up his rook for a minor piece. The technicalities remained, but one could count on Anish to deliver the goods.
Van Foreest continued to surprise his detractors as he scored over Deac with the black pieces. It was another King’s Indian, wherein the initial skirmish led to wild complexities, and clearly Van Foreest was much superior in handling them compared to Deac.
The other two games of the day were drawn, as Caruana could do little against Wesley, while Sindarov recovered a bit by holding Vachier-Lagrave.
The Super Classic is a nine-round event between ten players with a total prize pool of USD 350,000, from which USD 100,000 is reserved for the winner.
Round 2 results: Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 0.5) lost to R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 0.5) lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 1.5); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 1) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 1); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1.5) beat Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou); Wesley So (USA, 1) drew with Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 1)
(With PTI Inputs)
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