St. Louis (USA), Aug 22 (HS):

Round four of the prestigious Sinquefield Cup saw both Indian grandmasters settling for draws on Thursday as World Champion D. Gukesh split the point with France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, while R. Praggnanandhaa was held to a tame draw by American GM Samuel Sevian.

The day’s only decisive result came from American star Fabiano Caruana, who notched his second straight victory by defeating Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov in just 30 moves. With back-to-back wins, Caruana surged ahead as the sole leader with 3 points from 4 rounds.

Praggnanandhaa, wielding white against Sevian in a Queen’s Gambit, was unable to mount serious pressure. Exchanges in the middlegame quickly simplified the position, leading to an uneventful draw. Gukesh too, despite handling the white pieces, could not shake off Vachier-Lagrave’s resilience in another queen pawn opening. Early queen trades steered the game into a rook endgame where both sides had equal material, making a draw the fair outcome.

In other matchups, France’s Alireza Firouzja split the point with Wesley So, while Levon Aronian of the United States drew against Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

With five rounds to go, Caruana tops the table on 3 points, followed by Praggnanandhaa and Aronian on 2.5 each. Gukesh, along with Vachier-Lagrave, Firouzja, So and Sevian, sits in the joint fourth spot at 2 points. Duda trails slightly on 1.5, while Abdusattorov finds himself at the bottom with just half a point.

The nine-round, 10-player round-robin carries a total prize fund of USD 350,000, making it one of the most lucrative and fiercely contested events on the global chess calendar.

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Hindusthan Samachar / Jun Sarkar