Sinquefield Cup: R Praggnanandhaa outplays D Gukesh

R Praggnanandhaa outplays D Gukesh. (AP Image)

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa outplayed World Champion D Gukesh in the opening round of the Sinquefield Cup Chess tournament to rise to the third position in live world rankings. He now shares the lead with the unstoppable Levon Aronian of United States, who outsmarted Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan after the opening round on Monday.

In other games of the first round Fabiano Caruana of USA played out a draw with Duda Jan-Kryzstof of Poland while wild card Samuel Savian split the point with American country-mate Wesley So while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France also drew with another Frenchman Alireza Firouzja.

With eight rounds still to come in the USD 350,000 prize money tournament, as many as six players share the third spot behind Praggnanandhaa and Aronian while Gukesh and Abdusattorov are at the bottom of the heap hoping to open their respective accounts in the next round.

Praggananandhaa faced the Queen's gambit accepted by Gukesh who played with black pieces.

The solid approach was under the scrutiny early as Gukesh spent a lot of time in a known position and went for a dubious set-up that involved early exchange of queens.

Praggnanandhaa had the Bishop pair as playing with white pieces gave him a distinct advantage.

Making things worse for himself, Gukesh also fell short of time and had to find some really difficult moves to stay in the game.

Relentless, as he is, Praggnanandhaa did not let the position slip out of hand as he won a pawn by force and the rest was easy. The game lasted just 36 moves.

"I don’t really know what happened today. I think he was a bit off," said Praggnanandhaa after the game.

Incidentally with this victory, Praggnanandhaa also restored parity with Gukesh in classical format in which both have three wins each.

"Last year, I messed up some good positions against him, I think I did not beat him (in classical) for almost two years now, so finally it’s good to get a win," noted Praggnanandhaa.

Aronian was quick to find counter play once Nodirbek ran out of steam after a long time trying to attack the black King. The Uzbek Grandmaster had the white pieces and a slightly favourable position but the American stayed put with some good resources. The game should have been a draw but Abdusattorov bungled and lost badly.

Results round 1: R Praggnanandhaa (Ind) beat D Gukesh (Ind); Fabiano Caruana (Usa) drew with Duda Jan Kryzstof (Pol); Samuel Savian (Usa) drew with Wesley So (Usa); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) lost to Levon Aronian (Usa); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) drew with Alireza Firouzja (Fra).