Chess: Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa loses to Keymer

St. Louis (USA): Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Vincent Keymer of Germany in the clash of youth in the Sinquefield Cup, part of the Grand Chess tour, here on Thursday.

The Indian ace who has been rolling the roost for quite sometime had to finally concede a defeat against Keymer who has been making ground for himself in the last one year.

The defeat meant that Praggnanandhaa remained on 1.5 points after three rounds and saw him slip to joint fourth spot with six rounds still to come in the USD 475000 prize money tournament.


The biggest victory of the day was claimed by Philippine's Wesley So who has now been representing the United States for many years. On the receiving end was none other than Fabiano Caruana of US who was outfoxed by his opponent.

Wesley So emerged as the first sole leader of the tournament following his second straight win on 2.5 points and he is now followed by Armenian turned American Levon Aronian and ever-reliable Maxime Vachier Lagrave of France.

Praggnanandhaa is next in the queue on 1.5 points alongside Caruana, Keymer and surprise addition Sevian Samuls of the United States.

Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, who is going to challenge D Gukesh in the world championship scheduled later this year is on one point along with Anish Giri of Holland while another dutchman Jorden Van Foreest is on the last spot in the 10-player 9-rounds event with just a half point in his bucket.

It was not an easy day for Praggnanandhaa as he might have expected following good results against Keymer. The opening was not a problem but the Indian blundered away his chances and eventually it was a checkmate on board, seldom seen in top level Grandmasters games.

The hero of the day was Wesley So who gave little away against Caruana and when it mattered took his chances to win perhaps his most coveted victory in recent times. For Wesley it was the crowing moment when Caruana resigned as it also added to his hopes of being one of the four players to qualify for the grand finale in the Grand chess tour.

Anish Giri lost to Sevian after a long drawn game that lasted over 100 moves and Vachier-Lagrave drew with Sindarov without much fuss. In the other game of the day Aronian kept himself in contention signing peace with Jorden Van Foreest.

Results round 3: Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1.5) beat R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5) Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 1) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2); Savian Samuels (Usa, 1.5) beat Anish Giri (Ned, 1); Jorden Van Foreest (Ned, 0.5) drew with Levon Aronian (Usa, 2) beat; Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 1.5) lost to Wesley So (Usa, 2.5).