Prague, Mar 2: World champion D Gukesh’s hunt for his first victory continued as he was held to a draw by David Navara of Czech Republic in the fourth round of the Prague International Chess Festival here.
On a day when Jorden van Foreest of Holland nosed ahead of the field with his third victory in four games, defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram went down fighting against Vincent Keymer of Germany.
Van Foreest defeated Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan while the other two games in the 10-player round-robin tournament ended in draws.
American Hans Moke Niemann drew with Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran and David Anton Guijarro got the same result against Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.
With five rounds still to come and the event knocking on the doors of crossing the half-way barrier, van Foreest, on three points, is now followed by Abdusattorov and Navara, who in turn are a half point ahead of Yakubboev, Keymer and Guijarro.
The remaining four participants – Chithambaram, Gukesh, Niemann and Maghsoodloo – are all tied on the seventh spot on 1.5 points apiece.
Navara may be past his prime but, having played chess at a high level in the past, has helped him a great deal here. The Czech number one had to defend a difficult position against Gukesh out of a Ruy Lopez Berlin but he denied the world champion any decisive advantage.
The end result was a level rook and pawns endgame wherein Gukesh had to split the point when bare kings remained on board after 72 moves.