New Delhi:

Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to remain in joint lead with him after the completion of five rounds at the Superbet Classic 2025, a part of the Grand Chess Tour. On the other side, his compatriot and World champion, D Gukesh, recovered a bit to draw with Poland’s Duda Jan-Krzysztof in what was a rather dull day with stalemate on all five boards in the 10-player round-robin tournament.

How did Gukesh fare?

Meanwhile, Gukesh faced huge complications against Duda and was on the brink of losing another game. The Queen’s Gambit declined did not bring much for the Indian, and he ultimately decided to sacrifice a piece. The game could have been drawn, but Gukesh showed little ambition, and Duda committed a blunder on the 43rd move for the World champ to get a draw.

Round 5 results: R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 3) drew with Maxime-Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 3); D Gukesh (Ind, 2) drew with Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol, 2); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 2) drew with Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 2.5); Wesley So (USA, 2.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 3); Levon Aronian (2.5) drew with Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 2.5).

Vachier-Lagrave too came up with a sacrifice within time as he parted his rook for a knight, and the move of his remaining pieces ensured that there was no problem at all. The 19-year-old eventually allowed a repetition, and the game was drawn after 45 moves in total.

Playing with white pieces, Praggnanandhaa was up against an expected Sicilian Najdorf move against Vachier-Lagrave and opted to give a lesser-known variation as his reply. However, the Frenchman, who held a deep understanding of the opening, didn’t face any hurdles in maintaining equality, even though Praggnanandhaa sacrificed a pawn in the middle of the game to put some pressure on the kingside.

Meanwhile United States’ Levon Aronian battled till the very end against Firouzja Alireza of France to earn a half point. Similar was the case for Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, who had to share the point with Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania. Apart from Vachier-Lagrave and Praggnanandhaa, US national Fabiano Caruana remained as the third co-leader after a long and arduous battle against fellow American Wesley So.

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