World Champion D Gukesh suffered a shock loss against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France in the fourth round of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania, on Saturday.
Gukesh, the top seed and a huge favourite to win the tournament, is still searching for a first victory in the event with five rounds still remaining in the US$350000 prize money tournament.
On a day when R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with local hopeful Deac Bogdan-Daniel, Levon Aronian of United States was the only other winner scoring his first win at the expense of Duda Jan Krzysztof of Poland.
In other games of the day, Fabiano Caruana of United States played out a draw with Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, while Iranian-turned-French Firouzja Alireza signed peace with American Wesley So.
Caruana, Pragg and Vachier-Lagrave shared the lead on 2.5 points from the first four rounds and they are followed by Alireza, Wesley, Aronian and Deac on two points apiece.
Gukesh is currently sharing the 8th spot on 1.5 points along with Abdusattorov and Duda.
It was the Scotch opening that proved to be a hurdle in Gukesh's quest as black. The Indian went for a less popular variation and even though the position looked level in the ensuing middle game Gukesh was never really out of the muddy waters.
Vachier-Lagrave used his chances to significantly weaken Gukesh's guard on the queen side by way of loose pawns and then the game suddenly ended abruptly as Gukesh realised the weaknesses were undefendable.
It was all over in a mere 31 moves.
Praggnanandhaa did not get any chance as Deac was probably happy with a draw as white. The pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the game was a bit boring for the chess buffs who were looking at a full-blown battle. Pragg could do little and drew in 35 moves.
Results round 4:
Deac Bogdan Daniel (Rou, 2) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 2.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2.5) beat D Gukesh (Ind, 1.5); Duda Jan Krzysztof (pol, 1.5) lost to Levon Aronian (Usa, 2); Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 2) drew with Wesley So (Usa, 2); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 1.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 2.5).
Murali, Iniyan and Daneshvar share lead
Indian Grandmasters Murali Karthikeyan and P Iniyan, and Iranian Bardiya Daneshvar shared the lead on 3.5 points after the end of the fourth round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship in Al Ain, UAE, on Saturday.
Pranav Anand proved Indian bench strength, holding highly regarded top seed Nihal Sarin to a draw. Sarin has accumulated three points.
Iniyan got the better of Meng Yihan while Iranian Sina Mohaved was no match for Karthikeyan.
In the women's section, Mungunzul Bat-Erdene of Mongolia and Afruza Khamdanova of Uzbekistan emerged as co-leaders with a perfect score of four points.
Srija Sheshadri is the best performing Indian in this section with 3.5 points to her kitty.
Important and Indian results round 4 (Indians unless specified): Shamsiddin Vokhidov (Uzb, 3) drew with Bardiya Daneshvar (Iri, 3.5); Pranav Anand (3) drew with Nihal Sarin (3); Sina Movahed (2.5) lost to Murali Karthikeyan (3.5); A R Saleh Salem (Uae, 3) drew with Prraneeth Vuppala (3); Xu Xiangyu (Chn, 3) drew with L R Srihari (3); Yang Zilong (Chn, 3) drew with M Pranesh (3); P Iniyan (3.5) beat Meng Yihan (Chn, 2.5); A R Ilamparthi 2) lost to Aleksey Grebnev (Fid, 3); Leon Luke Mendonca (3) beat Sugar Gan-Erdene (Phi, 2); Siddharth Jagadeesh (2) lost to Abhimanyu Puranik (3); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (2.5) drew with Ivan Rozum (2.5); G B Harshavardhan (3) beat Mikahil Demidov (Fid, 2).
Women: Anastasia Bodnaruk (Fid, 4) beat Valentina Gunina (Fid, 3); Mungunzul Bat-Erdene (Mgl, 4) beat Afruza Khamdamova (Uzb, 3); Olgas Girya (Fid, 3) drew with Srija Seshadri (3.5); Vantika Agrawal (3) drew with Liya Kurmangaliyeva (Kaz, 3); P V Nandhidhaa (3) beat Melika Mohammadi (2); Rakshitta Ravi (3) beat Nisha Mohota (2); Arshiya Das (3) beat Munkhzul Turmunkh (Mgl, 2); Galina Mikheeva (Fid, 2) lost to B Savitha Shri (3).
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