New Delhi: 

Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa climbed to sole lead after defeating Wesley So of the United States in the eighth round of Superbet Classic 2025, an event part of the Grand Chess Tour, being held in Bucharest, Romania. On Thursday, Praggananandhaa played with the black pieces to claim a win and rise to five points in all, while So slipped to joint-seventh position in the leaderboard with a score of 3.5.

Results (Round 8): Wesley So (USA, 3.5) lost to R Praggananandhaa (Ind, 5); Levon Aronian (3) lost to D Gukesh (Ind, 3.5); Deac Bogdan Daniel (Rou, 4) drew with Duda Jan-Krzysztof (Pol, 3); Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 4) playing Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 2.5).

With Praggnanandhaa on five points, Caruana, Firouzja, and Vachier-Lagrave share the second spot with 4.5 points apiece. Firouzja can join the Indian in the lead if he wins against Abdusattorov in the next round. After enduring two losses, Gukesh came back in form and climbed to 3.5 points, sitting joint-seventh.

India had a great day on the two boards, the other occupied by World champion D Gukesh, who managed to pull off his first victory of the event at the expense of another American, Levon Aronian. It was draws across the other three boards as Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France played a draw with Fabiano Caruana of the USA, while local player Deac Bogdan-Daniel drew with Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland.

There’s only one more round to go as French national Alireza Firouzja tried his best to dent the confidence of Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a battle that was keenly contested.

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