Tata Steel Masters: Praggnanandhaa draws with Gukesh

Tata Steel Masters: Praggnanandhaa draws with Gukesh in Berlin defense, maintaining lead in Wijk Aan Zee.

Continuing his fine form in the Tata Steel Masters, Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa played out a solid draw with world champion D. Gukesh in the eighth round here.

Playing the white side of a Berlin defence, Praggnanandhaa had a slightly favourable position optically, but Gukesh was always on the guard. It was in the early middle game that Gukesh sacrificed a pawn to get his counterplay rolling, and even though Praggnanandhaa tried to make use of it, the game was always closer to a draw.

As the Queens got traded, the players arrived at a rook-and-minor-piece endgame wherein Gukesh found the best resources and even got an outside passed pawn.

With Praggnanandhaa’s rook having the task of working against the pawn, the result of the game was never in doubt. The game was drawn after 33 moves.

With this draw, both Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh continue to share the lead of 5.5 points with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, who defeated Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia.

Among other Indians in the fray, Grandmaster P. Harikrishna played out a draw with highest-ranked Dutchman Anish Giri. The Arkhengelsk variation in the Ruy Lopez with black gave Giri an easy equality in the early middle game and the pieces got exchanged in a heap.

The players arrived at an absolutely level rook-and-pawn endgame where the draw was a just result. Harikrishna moved to four points out of a possible eight while Anish took his tally to 3.5 following his seventh straight draw.