The two young chess prodigies, D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa have maintained constant pressure on the leader Fabiano Caruana in the standings of the Super Bet Classic in Romania.
Both of them played out a draw in the penultimate round of the competition and currently are just half a point behind the leader. They both have 4.5/8 points and currently sitting in the tied second position.
Close title race
Pragg played out a solid tactical draw against the leader in the eighth round to keep his hope alive in this tournament. In this 31-move draw, both players maintained an excellent accuracy of 98.5.
He will now take on the young French player, Alireza Firouza in the final round which could be a must-win encounter for both the players depending on the results of the other matches.
This result has also opened the title race and promised an exciting final round with three players keeping in check Fabiano’s dream of defending his title from the last edition.
“I’m a bit disappointed that I missed two chances in the start but it happens sometimes, still one round to go. I have Alireza next who was in a bit of a danger today but let’s see how it goes tomorrow,” Pragg expressed his emotions after the draw in the eighth round.
Another Draw for Gukesh
D Gukesh played out his seventh draw of the tournament as he could not convert his eight-round match against Anish Giri of the Netherlands despite a good start from the opening.
Anish showed a gritty middle game and didn’t give any opportunity to the FIDE Candidates champion and ended the match with another draw to continue this drawing streak at this tournament.
However, Anish’s title hope is over from this tournament but his final game is against the leader Fabiano and if he somehow wins that match, the tournament will have a dramatic ending.
On the other hand, D Gukesh is still in the race for a title contender and had his final round match against Wesley So of the USA with the black pieces.
Final round board pairings
1- Fabiano Caruana ( USA) Vs Anish Giri (NED)
2- Wesley So (USA) Vs GM Gukesh Dommaraju (IND)
3- Bogdan-Daniel Deac (ROU) Vs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA)
4- Ian Nepomniachtchi (FID) Vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB)
5 – Praggnanandhaa R (IND) Vs Alireza Firouzja (FRA)