Bucharest (Romania), May 20:
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out his fourth draw, signing peace with American Wesley So in the fifth round of the Super Chess Classic, a part of the Grand Chess Tour.
On a day without any decisive games, Germany’s Vincent Keymer maintained his half-point lead, moving up to 3.5 points. Praggnanandhaa shares the second spot with Dutch duo of Anish Giri and Jorden Van Foreest.
France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Wesley So share fifth place on 2.5 points each, while Fabiano Caruana of the United States and World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan trail closely on two points, with the latter having one game in hand.
Romanian Bogdan-Daniel Deac is ninth spot on 1.5 points, a half point ahead of Alireza Firouzja of France.
In the other games of the day, Keymer drew with the black pieces against Giri, Vachier-Lagrave shared the point with van Foreest, Sindarov drew with Firouzja, and Deac held Caruana to a draw.
Praggnanandhaa chose the Berlin defence against So, who did not show much intensity in the initial phase of the closed variation. As many as three minor pieces changed hands early in the middle game but thereafter Wesley gained the upper hand with some breakthrough on the king side.
Praggnanandhaa, to his credit, stayed put with some counter play and So just decided to repeat the position. The game lasted 45 moves.
Firouzja returned to the tournament after missing the previous round. The Frenchman had injured his ankle after the third round and requested permission to play his game against Sindarov from his room. The game eventually ended in a draw.
Keymer also chose the Berlin defence and faced little problems against Giri. The players quickly reached a rook-and-minor-piece endgame where the draw was a just result in a mere 32 moves.
Tuesday is the lone rest day in the tournament and the battle will resume on Wednesday with just four rounds remaining in this USD 3,50,000 prize money tournament.