Gukesh escapes with a draw against Praggnanandhaa

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For a while, World Championship challenger D Gukesh was on the ropes in his Round 3 game of the Sinquefield Cup. The 18-year-old had pushed his Black King to the d7 square on move 34, targeting White’s rook. A potentially game-losing move. His opponent and fellow Indian R Praggnanandhaa leaned forward. The computer engine right away loved the edge it handed him. He had eight minutes left on the clock to figure his path to a win.

Praggnanandhaa was firmly in the driver’s seat. The evaluation bar jumped for joy in White’s favour in the moves that followed. Gukesh sat impassively, betraying no emotion. On move 50, with a minute left on his clock, Praggnanandhaa chose to play the wrong King move – Ke8 (instead of Ke7). The mistake meant he had robbed himself of Rd6+ – a winning check and the game was now headed for a draw. Two moves later, Gukesh spotted b5 – which allowed him to sacrifice his rook for a pawn and he went on to gobble up White’s rook with a pawn. Gukesh had escaped what seemed like a lost rook endgame.

Praggnananadhaa looked away from the board, twirling a piece between his fingers and shaking his head in disappointment as they played out the final few perfunctory moves for a draw at the end of over five hours. “This is a repeat of the story of many, many of their recent games when Pragg had tremendous winning chances against Gukesh with White…he’s missed a few clean shots at the goal against Gukesh in recent times,” said Peter Svidler on the live broadcast. The Russian who is a commentator for the tournament, is also Praggnanandhaa’s trainer.

It’s turning into a bit of a recurring theme for Praggnanandhaa – coming close to a win against Gukesh but not being able to put in the finishing touches and convert.

At the Prague Masters in March this year, Gukesh had escaped a lost endgame against Praggnanandhaa, putting up a tenacious defence in an encounter that lasted five and a half hours. Understandably, any encounter between both is loaded with history and comes with added dollops of pressure. The two prodigies have been jockeying for the same goals for a while. If Praggnanandhaa was the first to get to a GM title between the two in 2018, Gukesh broke his record the following year. If Praggnanandhaa, was the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to reach a World Cup final in 2023, Gukesh this year earned himself the distinction of becoming only the first Indian after Anand to win the Candidates and be christened challenger to the world champion.

Praggnanandhaa is coming off a forgettable outing in the St Louis rapid and blitz tournament that was wrapped up just ahead of the Sinquefield Cup. He finished last in it. On Wednesday though, there was little doubt that he was the better player on the day for the most part, and had Gukesh in hot water.

“I think neither of us will struggle with the positives from this game,” Svidler went on to say in summation. “He outplayed Gukesh from an endgame which I assumed was going to be a very easy hold for Black. But you want to convert that...”

At the end of three rounds in the 10-player round robin tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alireza Firouzja are in the joint lead with two points. Both Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh have had three draws in a row now in St Louis.