Gukesh vs Praggnanandhaa: Pragg allows World Championship challenger to salvage draw from losing position | Chess News

Gukesh vs Praggnanandhaa: In the battle royale between the country’s top teenage prodigies at the Sinquefield Cup, Praggnanandhaa found himself in a winning rook endgame against World Championship contender Gukesh, but squandered his advantage to allow the 18-year-old to a draw at St Louis.
While it was just a round 3 clash in the round robin tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour, the stakes in the clash were slightly higher as Peter Svidler, who has been Praggnanandhaa’s trainer since the start of this year, said from his spot in the commentary panel.
“There’s a very strong rivalry between the Indian kids. They’ve grown up together. (These games) matter a great deal. They’ve been playing each other from the age of eight for sure, maybe even earlier in some cases. So this game matters for both of them,” grandmaster Svidler said while the game was still being fought on the board.

Pragg and Gukesh meet in the 3rd round of the #SinquefieldCup! Both players have expressed that playing here was a dream come true. We’re looking forward to an exciting game between two of the brightest stars in the world of chess! #Grandchesstour #chess #gukeshd #praggnanandhaa… pic.twitter.com/tnIqaFhRqE
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Gukesh had blundered on move 34 when he pushed his king to the d7 square in a bid to attack Pragg’s last remaining rook. This move followed immediately after both players’ rooks had shot across the board to capture the other player’s rooks, leaving both players with just one rook apiece. The engine did not appreciate Gukesh’s king trying to pressurise Pragg’s rook. It instead wanted his rook to give a check on Pragg’s king and keep his opponent under pressure.
For 16 moves from that stage, Pragg held the upper hand with white pieces. But on his 50th move, Praggnanandhaa erred as well when he moved his king to e8.
As the game ambled along to an inevitable draw, Svidler pointed at a trend emerging in Gukesh vs Pragg contests.
“This repeats the story of many of their recent games when Pragg was playing white and got tremendous winning chances like in the WR Masters. Then at the Candidates, it went in a slightly different fashion because Pragg lost with white. In that game he played a very different and new opening idea and was far ahead on the clock at one point but then was gradually outplayed. But there, he missed a few clean shots at the goal with Gukesh with white pieces,” said Svidler even as the camera caught the sight of Pragg shaking his head in disappointment as it became apparent he had let Gukesh escape.

What an escape for Gukesh! He saves the lost ending vs Pragg in the 3rd round of the #SinquefieldCup. pic.twitter.com/X6S0BVq8X0
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“It looks like you’re going to do some consoling and let the young man know that he played a very good game,” grandmaster Yasser Seirawan told Svidler in the commentary booth.
Svidler just shrugged as he contextualised how difficult the victory was for any player despite getting an advantage heading into the endgame. “Neither of us are going to struggle with the positives from this game. He outplayed Gukesh from an endgame which I assume was going to be a very easy hold for black. But you want to convert them. The win wasn’t trivial. Even after we were told ( the engine) how he could win, we still struggled to nail it down.
Meanwhile, in other games, world champion Ding Liren was also in a winning position against Wesley So, but two ill-chosen moves saw his advantage frittered away as the game ended in a draw.
After three rounds, Alireza Firoujza and Ian Nepomniachtchi are leading the 10-player standings with 2 points while a group of six players including Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Ding are tied in third place with 1.5 points.