Bucharest, Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Vincent Keymer of Germany to stay in 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, Dutch duo of Jorden Van Foreest and Anish Giri along with Keymer.
With half the field of ten-players 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 a half point apiece.
For Praggnanandhaa, the white pieces did not matter much. Keymer has been a consistent performer amongst the top players for quite some time and on this day too was in his element as he gave 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 it happened in the game, the players reached a rook and minor piece endgame wherein Pragg’s extra pawn was effectively dealt by a perfect blockade and the game was drawn after 64 moves.
Anish Giri proved why no one should take him lightly yet again as he scored his first victory in the event over Alireza Firouzja. The King’s Indian was the preferred choice by the French GM and Giri got a stronghold leading to a small sacrifice wherein Firouzja gave up his rook for a minor piece. The technicalities remain but one could on Anish to deliver the goods.
Foreest continued to surprise his detractors as he scored over Deac with black pieces. It was another King’s Indian wherein the initial skirmish led to wild complexities and clearly, 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-rounds event between ten players with a total prize pool of USD 350,000 from which a USD 100,000 is reserved for the winner.
Results round 2: Javokhir Sindarov lost to R Praggnanandhaa Alireza Firouzja lost to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ; Fabiano Caruana drew with Anish Giri ; Vincent Keymer beat Deac Bogdan-Daniel ; Wesley So drew with Jorden Van Foreest .
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