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IMAGE: Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored his second consecutive victory in the Prague Masters with Black against GM Vincent Keymer on Saturday. Photograph: Kind courtesy chess.com
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored his second victory on the trot, outwitting Vincent Keymer of Germany to join compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram at the top on three points after the end of the fourth round of the Prague Masters.
Aravindh survived some initial hiccups before signing peace with Sam Shankland of the United States, while top seed Wei Yi of China finally found his form at the expense of local star David Navara.
Anish Giri of the Netherlands played out his fourth draw in as many games with Gurel Ediz of Turkey, while Czech GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van also drew with Quang Leim Le of Vietnam in the other two games of the 10-player round-robin tournament.
With Praggnanadhaa and Aravindh in front, Shankland, Keymer, Giri and Le share the third spot a full point behind and it looks like the race for the title will be between the two Indians only with five rounds still to come.
Almost a month back Keymer had beaten Praggnanandhaa in the Tata Steel Masters and the Indian avenged his defeat fighting from what looked like a shaky French defense with black.
Keymer was caught off guard in the middlegame.
Praggnanandhaa went for the trade of queens and got his counter attack rolling.
Keymer, meanwhile, ran low on time and wasted some moves moving his rook back and forth to just draw. The Indian obviously understood it better and used his pieces well to win a couple of pawns. The rest was easy and it was all over in 44 moves.
Aravindh faced the Sicilian defense and Shankland equalised quite easily.
An exchange spree led to a very slight advantage for Shankland but the endgame was always closer to a draw. The players eventually arrived at a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame where an extra pawn for Shankland did not matter much.
The next round will see the two leaders pitted against each other and Praggnanadhaa will play with white.
In the challengers’ section, Divya Deshmukh played out a draw with Ma Qun of China and took her tally to 1.5 points from four games.
This section is jointly led by Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan and Jonas Buhl Bjerre of Denmark, who both have three points apiece.
Results of Round 4: Aravindh Chithambaram (IND, 3) drew with Sam Shankland (USA, 2); Vincent Keymer (GER, 2) lost to R Praggnanandhaa (IND, 3); Wei Yi (CHN, 1.5) beat David Navara (CZE, 1.5); Gurel Ediz (TUR, 1.5) drew with Anish Giri (NED, 2) Nguyen Thai Dai Van (CZE, 1.5) drew with Quang Leim Le (VIE, 2).
Challengers: Stamatis Kourkoulous-Arditis (GER, 1.5) drew with Ivan Salgado Lopez (ESP, 2); Vaclav Finek (CZE, 1.5) lost to Marc`andria Maurizzi (FRA, 2); Divya Deshmukh (IND, 1.5) drew with Ma Qun (CHN, 2); Jonas Buhl Bzerre (DEN, 3) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB, 2); Nemec Jychym (CZE, 1.5) lost to Richard Stalmach (CZE, 1.5).
