Bucharest , Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa missed a few winning attempts and was held to a draw by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France even as the race for the title tightened at the end of the penultimate round of the Super Chess Classic here.
On what turned out to be another excitement-filled day, the clash between overnight leaders Fabiano Caruana of United States and Vincent Keymer of Germany ended in a draw while world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan scored his second victory on the trot over Dutchman Jorden Van Foreest Friday night.
It was not a day the two Dutch GMs would like to remember as Anish Giri went down to lowest ranked Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania. Wesley So of United States was the beneficiary of a walkover following the withdrawal of Alireza Firouzja of France earlier in the tournament.
With just the last round remaining, the race for the title has heated up with as many as five players in contention. A play-off seems much on cards as both Keymer and Caruana have five points apiece to share the lead. Sindarov, Wesley and Foreest share the third spot on 4.5 points each while Praggnanandhaa is now joint sixth along with Giri and Vachier-Lagrave with each having four points in their bags.
Deac Bogdan-Daniel finished his playing campaign on 3.5 points but will get a walkover in the final round to be on a fifty percent score.
After a second round victory over Sindarov, Praggnanandhaa’s hunt for the second win almost came close against Vachier-Lagrave. It was a Grunfeld defense wherein the Indian came up with a surprising seventh move as white that had not been played at the highest level.
The Indian was on top pretty early in the Queen and heavy pieces middle game as black had a fractured pawn structure and one could sense that the game could be over soon.
However, a couple of unforced errors led the game to a queens and pawns endgame wherein Praggnanandhaa had an extra pawn. The game fluctuated between Praggnanandhaa’s chances and Vachier-Lagrave coming close.
To his credit, Praggnanandhaa gave it his all, playing the last 40 moves way behind on time. The longest game of the tournament was eventually drawn after 139 moves.
The day also saw Sindarov striking yet again. It was an immaculate display by the Uzbek in the rook and minor piece endgame and it was checkmate when he orchestrated a fine checkmate web with the help of Knight and rook.
The tournament has a total prize pool of USD 375000, with a USD 100000 reserved for the winner.
In case of a tied result at the top, tiebreak games of shorter duration will be played to determine the winner.
Results Round 8: R Praggnanandhaa drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave Deac Bogdan-Daniel beat Anish Giri ; Fabiano Caruana drew with Vincent Keymer ; Javokhir SIndarov beat Jorden Van Foreest ; Wesley So got a walkover against Alireza Firouzja .
Pairings final round: Giri vs Praggnanandhaa; Sindarov vs Wesley; Vachier-Lagrave vs Caruana; Keymer vs Foreest; Deac w/o Firouzja.
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