Gukesh draws with Giri; Praggnanandhaa holds

Saint Louis: India’s Grandmasters D Gukesh and R Praggnanadhaa played out their eighth draw in as many games at the Sinquefield Cup, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour. While World Championship challenger Gukesh signed peace with Anish Giri of Holland in just 23 moves, Praggnanadhaa too followed suit and drew with local favourite Fabiano Caruana in 28 moves. With all the games ending in draws in the eighth round, Alireza Firouzja of France won the Grand Chess Tour with one round to spare here and became entitled to a USD 100,000 bonus after his successful stint throughout. In the eighth round, Firouzja played out the longest game that also ended peacefully after 80 moves against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Results round 8: Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid, 3.5) drew with Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5.5;) Ding Liren (Chn, 3.5) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Usa, 4); R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 4.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4) drew with Wesley So (Usa, 4); Anish Giri (Ned, 3) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 4).PTI COR