Prague Chess: Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh play out a draw

India's Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram played out a long 59-move draw against each other to share the joint lead at the 2025 Prague Chess Festival on Sunday.

Both Praggnanandhaa and Chithambaram now have 3.5 points after five rounds of play and continue to be one point clear of the chasing pack led by Vincent Keymer.

Chithambaram, playing with black, opted for the Berlin defence against Praggnanandhaa's Ruy Lopez opening with the white pieces.

There was nothing to separate the two childhood friends over the board as both played with pin point accuracy. There were virtually no mistakes made in the contest as the duo split the points on offer.

While Chithambaram will next take on Liem Le, Praggnanandhaa will go up against Sam Shankland on Tuesday in the sixth round after the first rest day of the competition.

Divya loses

Elsewhere in the Challengers section, India's Divya Deshmukh's struggles continued as she lost to GM Marc Maurizzi with the black pieces.

Deshmukh, 19, found herself in a slightly inferior position right out of the opening but managed to hold on as Maurizzi found it difficult to break through.

The French Grandmaster, however, kept grinding an almost equal position and eventually found the required success when Deshmukh blundered in the 60th move following an error from Maurizzi himself.

Maurizzi cashed in the opportunity this time around, forcing a resignation out of Deshmukh after a 70-move marathon battle.

Deshmukh currently has 1.5 points out of a possible five and is placed ninth in the standings.