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Superbet Chess Classic Romania’s fourth round saw some stern competition as Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu shared the lead of 2.5 points respectively. World Champion D Gukesh couldn’t perform upto his reputation against Maxime and suffered a massive defeat as the French Grandmaster completely outclassed the youngster in 31 moves. Maxime utilised his opportunities to undermine Gukesh’s guard on the queen side by way of loose pawns and then the game suddenly concluded as Gukesh realised his frailties can’t be defended. Following this defeat, Gukesh is holding the eighth spot with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
R. Praggnanandhaa, who looked extraordinary against Nodirbek Abdusattorov in Round 3, didn’t get a lot of opportunities in his contest against Romanian Bogdan Daniel-Deac and settled for a draw. The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and eventually both players agreed for a stalemate in the end. The youngster drew the game in just 35 minutes.
Fabiano Caruana settles for a draw with Nodirbek Abdusattorov
Fabiano Caruana, who displayed a valiant show against Iranian-French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja, played out a draw with Nodirbek. France’s Firouzja Alireza also contented himself with a stalemate contest against America’s Wesley So. America’s Levon Aronaian was the only player to notch up his first victory at the cost of Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof.
Indian Grandmasters Murali Karthikeyan and P Iniyan also grabbed attention for holding joint-lead on 3.5 points with Iran’s Bardiya Daneshvar following the conclusion of the fourth round in the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Al Ain on Saturday. Karthikeyan handed a defeat to Iran’s Sina Mohaved while Iniyan outclassed China’s Meng Yihan. In the women’s competition, Srija Sheshadri emerged as the best performing Indian with 3.5 points.
