Indian trio play out draws on dull day at Prague Masters

PRAGUE: The Indian trio of R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and Vidit Gujrathi played out draws on a dull fourth round day in the Prague Masters Chess tournament here.

It was time for some recovery for Praggnanandhaa after two back-to-back losses and the Indian just played a solid game to sign peace with local hopeful Nguyen Thai Dai Van.

Gukesh did not give any chances to Nodirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan and split the point while Gujrathi could not make much headway against Mateusz Bartel of Poland.

The day witnessed no decisive games as the remaining two were also drawn. Parham Maghsoodloo of Iran drew with highest ranked Czech David Navara and Richard Rapport of Romania got the same result against German Vincent Keymer. As a result the overnight positions remained unchanged with everyone heading a half to their kitty.

The players arrived at a heavy pieces endgame with white having a little pull but the Indian warded off the threats with a timely pawn sacrifice leading to a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame. The game lasted 40 moves. Abdusattarov again banked on his pet Catalan opening but Gukesh was calm and in control right through. The Uzbek had ridden on his luck in the previous round when he won a lost position against Navara but in the fourth round he was presented with no such opportunity.

Gukesh went for a thematic central breakthrough in the early part of the middle game and developed his forces efficiently to force some exchanges. The players reached a Queen and pawn endgame that was just level and offered no hopes for complications.

In the Challengers section Grandmaster R Vaishali scored her second victory on the trot at the expense of Stepan Herbek of Czech Republic. The victory brought Vaishali back to a fifty percent score after two losses in the first two rounds.