Wijk Aan Zee (The Netherlands), Feb 2: World Champion D Gukesh played out a draw with Jorden van Foreest of Holland, while Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat Alexey Sarana of Serbia as the two Indians shared the lead after a thrilling day at the Tata Steel Masters here.
Praggnanandhaa notched up his third consecutive win to take his tally to a commendable 8.5 points, same as his compatriot Gukesh after the 12th and penultimate round.
The two Indians are now poised for an exciting finish in the prestigious tournament, with the remarkable prospect of one of them potentially clinching the title-a first in Tata Steel Masters history. Eying the top spot after the 11th round, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan was outdone by Arjun Erigaisi and is all but out of title contention on 7.5 points.
Praggnanandhaa was involved in another Queen’s gambit declined opening. Only this time he was playing with white pieces. It was quite a contrast from his previous round game against Caruana as Sarana went for an early advance of king side pawns and then castled on the queen side. It was time to launch an attack against the black king and Praggnanandhaa did not disappoint.
In tactical complications, Praggnanandhaa was at his best as he sacrificed a piece to rip-apart the black’s king position and what followed thereafter was a pleasure to watch. “At that point I realized it could be a long game, but then I saw this piece sacrifice,” said Pragg after the game.
The game ended through a queen sacrifice resulting in force checkmate. (PTI)
