Praggnanandhaa holds Nakamura, Sindarov stuns Wei Yi in Candidates

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa drew with Hikaru Nakamura in round six of the Candidates chess tournament, while Javokhir Sindarov stunned Wei Yi to extend his lead. In the women’s section, Divya Deshmukh and R Vaishali registered impressive victories

PAPHOS (CYPRUS): Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out a quick and easy draw with Hikaru Nakamura of the United States while Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan continued his winning run, beating Wei Yi of China in the sixth round of the Candidates chess tournament here on Saturday.

With each passing round, Sindarov seems to be moving far away from the rest. This is by far the greatest performance in the history of the Candidates tournaments. With his fifth victory in six games, Sindarov moved to 5.5 points awaiting other results.

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Praggnanandhaa, on 3 points, is now 2.5 points behind Sindarov. It remains to be seen if the last eight games can change the fortunes of the other players. For now, Sindarov looks well past the reach of anyone.

Praggnanandhaa played the Nimzo Indian Defence as black against Nakamura, who was upset after his previous round loss. The American, now more famous as a streamer and often called the richest chess player, did not go for complications as a couple of minor pieces changed hands in the opening. Praggnanandhaa decided to repeat the position early in the middle game.

Sindarov was pleasantly surprised by the Bishop’s Opening from Wei Yi and had no trouble equalising early with his black pieces. The Uzbek sacrificed a pawn in the middle game that was poisoned and then launched a series of threats, forcing Wei Yi into complications. The game lasted just 36 moves.

Anna Muzychuk, who was unsure of playing the tournament even a week before it started, came up with another fine effort to beat Jiner Zhu of China. The Ukrainian moved to four points out of six and now enjoys a full-point lead over Zhu and Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina, who drew with Zhongyi Tan of China.

The two Indians in the women’s section had excellent results. Divya Deshmukh scored her first victory at the expense of Bibisara Assaubayeva of Kazakhstan, while R Vaishali cruised to a win over Kateryna Lagno of Russia. Both Divya and Vaishali jumped to joint second spot on three points.

Results round 6: Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 2.5) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (IND, 3); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2.5) drew with Andrey Esipenko (RUS, 2); Anish Giri (NED, 2.5) playing Matthias Bluebaum (GER, 2); Wei Yi (CHN, 2) lost to Javokhir Sindarov (UZB, 5.5).

Women: Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ, 2.5) lost to Divya Deshmukh (IND, 3); Kateryna Lagno (RUS, 3) lost to R Vaishali (IND, 3); Zhongyi Tan (CHN, 2.5) drew with Aleksandra Goryachkina (RUS, 3); Jiner Zhu (CHN, 3) lost to Anna Muzychuk (UKR, 4).