Gukesh takes down Abdusattorov, Pragg draws

St. Louis: World champion D Gukesh put his opening-round blues behind him and scored an excellent victory over Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the second round of the Sinquefield Cup here.

On a day when R Praggnanandhaa played a quiet game to draw with Fabiano Caruana of the United States, Alireza Firouzja of France gave a perfect endgame lesson as he crashed through the defense of Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland in the other decisive game of the day.

Levon Aronian of the United States played out a draw with compatriot Samuel Sevian to remain in joint lead while another American Wesley So drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the 10-player $3,75,000 prize-money tournament.

With seven rounds still to come, Praggnanandhaa, Aronian and Firouzja share the lead on 1.5 points.

Gukesh moved to joint fourth place alongside Caruana, Wesley So, Sevian and Vachier-Lagrave. Duda stands on ninth spot on half a point while Abdusattorov is yet to open his account after losing his second game on the trot.

Gukesh faced the open Sicilian, popularised by the legendry Viktor Korchnoi

in the last century.