Superbet Classic: Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa settle for draw in round six

D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa on Tuesday settled for a draw in round 6 of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania. 

The world championship challenger Gukesh played out a draw against Maxime-Vachier Lagrave of France.

Maxime with the white pieces opted for a Marshall Attack of the Ruy Lopez.

Maxime blitzed out the first 18 moves and Gukesh almost followed Maxime playing fast.

But following the 18th move by Maxime, Gukesh went into deep thought, calculating all the possibilities, and took more than forty minutes to make his 18th move of the game.

While it was a known territory for Maxime, having played the exact lines seven years ago against Levon Aronian at Norway Chess, Gukesh found himself in a completely new territory.

However, Gukesh showed some magnificent defensive skills, playing the only moves to gain control over the game from time to time.

The slight edge Maxime had went in vain and Gukesh managed to pull off a draw.

Praggnanandhaa’s fortress

Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by the Romanian wild card entry Bogdan-Daniel Deac.

Even after being the lowest-rated player, Daniel showed some brilliant defensive skills.

Praggnanandhaa with the white pieces started the game with Nimzo Indian, while Daniel exchanged the dark-squared bishop of Praggnanandhha with his knight.

With two black bishops facing toward the white king, Daniel looked to have an advantage going into the middle game, which was followed by an inaccuracy from Praggnanandhaa.

Praggnanandhaa gave no scope for any attack on Daniel later and protected his king like he was in a fortress.

Daniel getting no chance of any infiltration, repeated moves and shook hands to a draw.

In the other games, the leader of the tournament Fabiano Caruana drew with Ian Nepomniactchi and Anish Giri also settled for a draw against Nodrikbek Abdusattarav.

But the emergence of Alireza Firouza is a piece of good news in this tournament. Firouza registered a convincing victory against So Wesley. 

Currently, Fabiano is leading the tournament with four points, and Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, and Alireza are tied for the second spot with 3.5 points.

Going into the last three rounds, it’ll be exciting to see who wins the Superbet Classic 2024.

Round 7 Pairings

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