St. Louis (USA), Aug 22: Indian grandmaster R Praggnanadhaa was held to an easy draw by Samuel Sevian of the United States while World Champion D Gukesh signed peace with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the fourth round of the Sinquefield Cup, here.
Fabiano Caruana of the United States scored his second victory in as many days, defeating Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the lone decisive game of the day.
In the other games, Levon Aronian of the United States drew with Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland and French Alireza Firouzja split the point with Wesley So.
With five rounds still to come, Caruana shot into sole lead on three points from four games and is followed by Praggnanandhaa and Aronian on 2.5 each.
A pack of five players – Wesley, Firouzja, Vachier-Lagrave, Sevian and Gukesh share the fourth spot on two points apiece.
A half point behind is Duda while Abdusattorov is on the bottom of the tables on just a half point.
Praggnanandhaa faced the Queen’s gambit declined as white and could not pose any real problems in the way of Sevian. The middle game saw a lot of pieces change hands and it was a soon a drawn endgame on the board.
Gukesh also could not make much use of his white piece as Vachier-Lagrave put up stiff resistance in another Queen pawn game of the day.
The Queens got traded early in the game and though it was a bit complicated both players held on to their own. The resulting rook endgame offered little hopes with both players having a pawn each and the draw was a just result.
Nodirbek’s hunt for an elusive victory continued as Caruana gave a cold-water treatment to an unwarranted King side attack. Abdusattorov sacrificed a piece but did not get the desired compensation and threw in the towel in a mere 30 moves.
The event, to be played over nine rounds among 10 players has a total prize pool of USD 350000. (PTI)
