Superbet Classic Round 4: Praggnanandhaa cruises past Anish, Gukesh held to draw

Grand Masters R Praggnanandhaa beat Anish Giri in round four of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania.

In a long 80-move game, Praggnanandhaa found himself in the driver’s seat from the get-go.

It was one of the off days for Anish as he committed multiple mistakes giving the advantage to Praggnanandhaa. 

Praggnanandhaa capitalised on the mistakes of the Dutchman and never gave him any chance to attack. He was seen dominating the board.

Eventually, Praggnanandhaa registered a solid win and moved up to the second spot on the leaderboard. 

Gukesh held to draw 

The game between Alireza Firouzja and D Gukesh started with the ceremonial first move by the 13-time world champion Garry Kasparov.

Firouzja and Gukesh played an old line of the Queen's Gambit accepting that Kasparov himself had played in a game in 1989.

Gukesh said he didn't know about the situation he was put but he quickly noticed it wasn't very dangerous either. He traded some minor pieces, and then his control of the light squares meant that Black was completely fine and the game ended in a simple draw.

“The preservation of classical chess, I think, is very important for helping players to realize their full potential, to put on display what they can do. Quality is also an issue," said Garry Kasparov.

In the other games, the top seed of the tournament Fabiano Caruana won against Bogdan Daniel-Deac of Romania.

Surprisingly, Daniel has been able to hold Fabiano to a draw in all four matches they have played earlier.

But not for the fifth time, Fabiano-Daniel turned to the Nimzo Indian defence, the same opening which Daniel opted to play against him to draw.

Fabiano successfully played his game and then moved confidently, putting Daniel under time pressure to which he succumbed and Fabiano won the battle.

With the win in the pocket, Fabiano is now the sole leader of the tournament.

Abbusattarav was unable to break the fortress made by Maxime and had to settle for a draw, while the between Nepo and Wesley So also ended in a draw, even after Nepo continued with his Ruy Lopez’s trump card.

Round 5 Pairings

• Gukesh D vs Nodirbek Abdusattarav
  
• Wesley So vs R Praggnanandhaa
• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs Fabiano Caruana
• Anish Giri vs Alireza Firouza
• Bogdan Daniel Deac vs Ian Nepomniachtchi