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IMAGE: R Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by Sam Shankland of the United States in the sixth round of the Prague Masters Chess tournament. Photograph: Kind Courtesy Prague Masters
Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram continued to remain in joint lead after drawing their sixth-round games in the Prague Masters Chess tournament in Prague.
Praggnanandhaa was held to a draw by Sam Shankland of the United States, while Aravindh split the point with Quang Leim Le of Vietnam to be on four points out of a possible six, on a day when all the games were drawn for the first time in the tournament.
Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh continued to be in the lead followed by top seed Wei Yi of China, Anish Giri of Holland, Vincent Keymer of Germany and Quang Leim, all of whom are on three points apiece.
Another half-point behind are the Czech duo of Nguyen Thai Dai Van and David Navara, Gurel Ediz of Turkey and Shankland.
With three more rounds to come, Praggnanandhaa holds the edge over Aravindh as he is set to play the next two games with white pieces. Aravindh, on the other hand, has only one game with white left.
The seventh round will be crucial for Praggnanandhaa as he takes on Wei Yi, while Aravindh will meet Anish, who has drawn all his games so far.
Praggnanandhaa was under pressure for some time in the middle game against his American opponent, who played white. The opening featured a regular Italian game and Shankland threw open the position with a knight sacrifice on the king side.
Soon after, Praggnanandhaa had to part with one of his rooks for a minor piece, and what resulted was a very complex position.
Navigating between better and equal thereon, the Indian allowed Shankland to go for a forced repetition and the game was drawn after 43 moves.
Playing white, Aravindh faced the Queen’s gambit declined — one of the most classical setup for decades now –, and had his forces around the centre right from the word go.
However, as the game progressed, Quang Leim remained impregnable, and by the 19th move itself the players had exchanged as many as three minor pieces and two pawns.
The pawn structure took a small turn when Aravindh decided to part with his last bishop for a knight but black had nothing to worry about. The players soon arrived at a rook-and-pawns endgame where the draw was a just result after 32 moves.
In the Challengers section, the fortunes of Divya Deshmukh did not change as she suffered another defeat and was pushed to the sole last spot among 10 players. Vaclav Finel defeated Divya in a rook-and-minor-piece endgame leaving the Indian on 1.5 points.
Jonas Buhl Bjerre of Denmark regained the joint lead by beating Marc’Andria Maurizzi of France. The Dane shares the top spot with Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan.
Results (Round 6):
Sam Shankland (USA, 2.5) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 4); Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind, 4) drew with Quang Leim Le (Vie, 3); Wei Yi (Chn, 3) drew with Gurel Ediz (Tur, 2.5); Nguyen Thai Dai Van (Cze, 2.5) drew with David Navara (Cze, 2.5); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3) drew with Anish Giri (Ned, 3).
Challengers: Finel Vaclav (Cze, 2.5) beat Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 1.5); Ivan Salgado Lopez (Esp, 3.5) drew with Richard Stalmach (Cze, 2.5); Stamatis Kourkoulous-Arditis (Gre, 2.5) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 4.5); Jonas Buhl Bzerre (Den, 4.5) beat Marc’Andria Maurizzi (Fra, 3); Nemec Jychym (Cze, 2) lost to Ma Qun (Chn, 3.5). PTI Cor AM
