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R Praggnanandhaa suffered his first defeat of the Sinquefield Cup, going down to Germany’s Vincent Keymer in a clash between two of the game’s rising young stars in the Grand Chess Tour event at St. Louis (USA) on Thursday.
Praggnanandhaa, who has been in impressive form for some time, was unable to maintain his momentum against Keymer, who has made significant strides over the past year.
The loss left Praggnanandhaa on 1.5 points after three rounds and dropped him to joint fourth place, with six rounds remaining in the USD 4,75,000 prize-money tournament.
The standout result of the day came from Wesley So who defeated Fabiano Caruana.
So became the tournament’s first outright leader with his second consecutive victory, moving to 2.5 points. So is followed
by Armenian-born American Levon Aronian and France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.
Praggnanandhaa is part of a four-player group on 1.5 points that also includes Caruana, Keymer and surprise contender Sevian Samuel of the United States.
Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov, who is set to challenge D Gukesh in the world championship later this year, has one point, the same as Dutchman Anish Giri.
Another Dutch player, Jorden Van Foreest, occupies the bottom position in the 10-player, nine-round tournament with half a point.
Praggnanandhaa did not initially appear to be heading towards trouble, particularly given his previous good results against Keymer. But after navigating the opening without major difficulty, the Indian blundered and surrendered his chances.
The game eventually ended in checkmate, an uncommon sight in games at the highest level of grandmaster chess.
So was the day’s biggest winner, producing a controlled performance against Caruana before capitalising when the opportunity arrived. Caruana’s resignation sealed what could be one of So’s most significant victories in recent times and strengthened his hopes of securing one of the four places in the Grand Chess Tour finale.
Giri was beaten by Sevian Samuel after a marathon encounter that lasted more than 100 moves. Vachier-Lagrave drew with Sindarov without much difficulty, while Aronian stayed in contention after sharing the point with Van Foreest.
Results, Round 3: Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1.5) beat R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5); Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 1) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2); Sevian Samuel (USA, 1.5) beat Anish Giri (Ned, 1); Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 0.5) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 2); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 1.5) lost to Wesley So (USA, 2.5).
With PTI Inputs
