Superbet Classic: Praggnanandhaa in joint lead with three others

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa kept his joint lead intact, drawing with fellow co-leader Alireza Firouzja of France in the seventh round of the Superbet Classic, a part of the Grand Chess Tour, on Thursday. With four points out of a possible seven in his bag, Praggnanandhaa shares the lead with Fabiano Caruana of the United States, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, and Firouzja.

World champion D Gukesh's hunt for an elusive victory in the event will have to wait another day as he drew with Wesley So without causing any real trouble to the American. With two more rounds to come, it seems like any of the four leaders could win the trophy and the top prize purse of USD 100,000.

With just 2.5 points in seven games, Gukesh is clearly struggling to make a mark in the event. R Praggnanandhaa did not have to stretch himself much against Firouzja in an English opening game. The Iranian-turned-French chess exponent did try some tricks but was kept away from employing any serious counterplay, and the players arrived at a theoretically drawn rook-and-pawn endgame pretty soon.

Results (Round 7): R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 4) drew with Alireza Firouzja (4); Levon Aronian (USA, 3.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4); Deac Bogdan Daniel (Rou, 3.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (4); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 3.5) beat Duda Jan Krzysztof (Pol, 2.5); Wesley So (USA, 3.5) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 2.5).