Prague Masters: Praggnanandhaa outwits Keymer to hitch Aravindh in lead

File picture of R. Praggnanandhaa.
| Photograph Credit score: AP

Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa scored his second victory on the trot, outwitting Vincent Keymer of Germany to hitch compatriot Aravindh Chithambaram on the prime on three factors after the top of the fourth spherical of the Prague Masters right here.

Aravindh survived some preliminary hiccups earlier than signing peace with Sam Shankland of america, whereas prime seed Wei Yi of China lastly discovered his kind on the expense of native star David Navara.

Anish Giri of Netherlands performed out his fourth attract as many video games with Gurel Ediz of Turkey, whereas Czech GM Nguyen Thai Dai Van additionally drew with Quang Leim Le of Vietnam within the different two video games of the 10-player round-robin event.

With Praggnanadhaa and Aravindh in entrance, Shankland, Keymer, Giri and Le share the third spot a full level behind and it seems to be just like the race for the title might be between the 2 Indians solely with 5 rounds nonetheless to return.

Virtually a month again Keymer had overwhelmed Praggnanandhaa within the Tata Metal Masters and the Indian avenged his defeat combating from what appeared like a shaky French protection with black.

Keymer was caught off guard within the middlegame.

Praggnanandhaa went for the commerce of queens and received his counter assault rolling.

Keymer, in the meantime, ran low on time and wasted some strikes shifting his rook forwards and backwards to only draw. The Indian clearly understood it higher and used his items properly to win a few pawns. The remainder was straightforward and it was throughout in 44 strikes.

Aravindh confronted the Sicilian protection and Shankland equalised fairly simply.

An trade spree led to a really slight benefit for Shankland however the endgame was all the time nearer to a draw. The gamers ultimately arrived at a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame the place an additional pawn for Shankland didn’t matter a lot.

The subsequent spherical will see the 2 leaders pitted towards one another and Praggnanadhaa will play with white.

Within the challengers’ part, Divya Deshmukh performed out a draw with Ma Qun of China and took her tally to 1.5 factors from 4 video games.

This part is collectively led by Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan and Jonas Buhl Bjerre of Denmark, who each have three factors apiece.

Outcomes of Spherical 4: Aravindh Chithambaram (IND, 3) drew with Sam Shankland (USA, 2); Vincent Keymer (GER, 2) misplaced 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) misplaced 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) misplaced to Richard Stalmach (CZE, 1.5).