BUCHAREST (Romania), May 20: Second-placed Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa will take on Romania’s Deac Bogdan-Daniel in the sixth round of the Super Chess Classic, a part of the Grand Chess Tour, seeking to break his run of draws, here.
After five rounds, Germany’s Vincent Keymer (3.5 points) is in sole lead by half a point over a chasing pack that includes Dutch duo of Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest, top seeded American Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa.
Caruana joined the shared second spot by defeating Alireza Firouzja of France in his fourth round game that was pushed back to the rest day as the latter suffered an ankle injury.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Wesley share the sixth spot on 2.5 points each while World Championship challenger Javokhir SIndarov of Uzbekistan are right behind on two points.
Romanian Bogdan-Daniel is in ninth spot on 1.5 points, half point ahead of Firouzja.
After a lone victory over Sindarov in the second round besides four draws, the pressure is now on Praggnanandhaa as he has a few tough matches left in the second half of the tournament.
The Indian will have black in the next round against Bogdan-Daniel, but thereafter, he has to take on Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave in succession before Anish Giri in the finale.
Keymer has been clearly the pick of the players thus far and his world ranking has now gone to number four in live ratings.
The German has white against Firouzja in the sixth round and a victory could pretty much secure the title for him.
Caruana is one player who has increased his chances considerably in the tournament thanks to a victory over Firouzja, and the American faces Sindarov in his next game. It will come down to Caruana’s deep preparation against Sindarov’s sharp, concrete play wherein error could decide the contest.
The 10-player nine-rounds event carries a total prize pool of USD 375000 with USD 100000 reserved for the winner.
This is the second event of the GCT this year after the Warsaw rapid and the top four finishers will also qualify for the Grand finale slated later this year. (PTI)
PAIRINGS ROUND 6
Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 1.5) vs R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 3); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5) vs Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 1); Caruana Fabiano (Usa, 3) vs Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 2); Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 3) vs Anish Giri (Ned, 3).
