Pragg, Gukesh draw in battle of top Indians

Wijk Aan Zee: Continuing his fine form in the Tata Steel Masters, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out a solid draw with world champion D Gukesh in the eighth round here.

Playing the white side of a Berlin defence, Praggnanandhaa had a slightly favourable position but Gukesh was always on guard. It was in the early middle game that Gukesh sacrificed a pawn to get his counterplay rolling, and even though Praggnanandhaa tried to make use of it, the game was always closer to a draw.

As the queens got traded, the players arrived at a rook-and-minor-piece endgame wherein Gukesh found the best resources and even got an outside passed pawn.

With Praggnanandhaa’s rook having the task of working against the pawn, the result of the game was never in doubt. The game was drawn after 33 moves.

With this draw, both Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh continue to share the lead on 5.5 points with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan,

who defeated Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia. Among other Indians in the fray, GM P Harikrishna played out a draw with highest-ranked Dutchman Anish Giri.

In the Challengers section, Nguyen Thai Van Dam of the Czech Republic shot into sole lead on six points defeating 14-year-old Chinese Miaoyi Lu. R Vaishali was held to a draw by Arthur Pijpers of Holland, while Divya Deshmukh lost another game against Kazakh Kazybek Nogerbek.