Sinquefield Cup: Gukesh holds Caruana; Firouzja consolidates lead after seven rounds

Grandmaster D Gukesh played out a hard-fought draw yet again, signing peace with top seed and local favourite Fabiano Caruana, while Frenchman Alireza Firouzja stretched his lead by a full point after the seventh round of Sinquefield Cup, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour.

The other Indian in the fray, R Praggnanandhaa, drew his seventh game on the trot to remain on a fifty per cent score. Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia was happy with a quick draw as Praggnanandhaa decided to save his energy.

With just two rounds to come, Firouzja, who put it across world champion Ding Liren of China, has five points in his kitty and Caruana continues to trail him a full point behind.

As many as five players — Wesley So of United States, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa — share the third spot on 3.5 points each.

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A half point behind are Liren and Nepomniachtchi while Dutchman Anish Giri is still at the bottom of the table on 2.5 points.

Besides Firouzja’s victory, Abdusattorov halted So’s party with a clinical performance. In the other game of the day, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew with Giri.

Gukesh continued with his uncompromising play but found Caruana adequately prepared in an Italian opening game.

The Indian was much worse in the ensuing endgame but Caruana missed out on his 39th turn when he could have gotten a real advantage.

Exchanges at regular intervals thereafter ensured the draw for the Indian.

Praggnanandhaa got nothing as white against Nepomniachtchi’s Petroff defense and the Chennai-based player had to be content with repetition of moves very early in the middle game. The game lasted a mere 19 moves.

The day belonged to Firouzja, who came up with fine resources in a complicated middle game against Liren.

The Italian opening has been doing well for the Frenchman and he knocked down a couple of pawns when Liren erred in the middle game allowing the white to invade his camp. The rest was easy.