Draws galore leave Sinquefield Cup on knife’s edge as R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh remain in hunt for title & Grand Tour Finals spot

Praggnanandhaa played with slightly better accuracy against Duda; however, it wasn’t enough to beat the Pole, who was in some trouble after misplacing his bishop in the middle game. After a one-day break, Duda appeared far more composed in comparison to the initial few rounds.

Both players played a risk-free game. By the 17th move, they had already used more than an hour of their 90 minutes allotted at the start and still had to make more than double the number of moves with only a fifth of their time left. Each player gets 90 minutes at the start, with a 30-second increment per move. After 40 moves, 30 additional minutes are added.

Praggnanandhaa had a favourable position with a slight advantage out of a Sicilian Alapin opening with white pieces. On the 16th move, when Duda played his bishop to f6 (16. Bf6), the engine spiked in favour of the Indian, who had a clear opportunity to press for a win. But the moment he left his e-pawn undefended by castling queenside on the 18th move (18. 0-0-0), all his hard-earned advantage fizzled out. Duda quickly chopped off the pawn on the e5 square and forced Pragg to trade the dark-squared bishop.

INTERACTIVE: Praggnanandhaa vs Duda

Duda then went for an impressive rook sacrifice, forcing Praggnanandhaa to respond. When the latter saw no real merit in the position, he accepted the sacrifice from Duda before the Pole won back his rook, and the India No.1 ended the contest by perpetual checks on Black’s queen.

R Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh at the first round of the Sinquefield Cup (PHOTO: Grand Chess Tour/Lennart Ootes)

What happened in the Gukesh vs Alireza Firouzja battle of prodigies?

The Gukesh vs Alireza Firouzja clash lived up to expectations. The longest game of the night, played for nearly five and a half hours, saw an exciting battle.

Playing with white, Gukesh had both positional and time advantage after the first 18 moves in the Sicilian Najdorf. Still in his opening preparation, Gukesh had taken more than 45 minutes off Firouzja’s clock while his own clock showed an hour and 32 minutes by move 15. It was at this point that things started to go south for the Indian, who quickly lost the positional edge and had to defend a worsening position.

The Frenchman — touted as the best speed chess player of his generation — showed his supreme time-management skills to draw level on the clock in just the next 10 moves.

INTERACTIVE: Gukesh vs Alireza Firouzja

By then, Firouzja already had a very promising position, almost a winning one, when his daunting pawn was running down the f-file, looking to apply some serious pressure on White’s king.

Gukesh Dommaraju during a round 3 game at the Sinquefield Cup 2025 in St Louis. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes)

Gukesh gave a check to Black’s king while also attacking Firouzja’s queen, leaving his opponent with two options – either move away from White’s line of attack, or to trade queens. Firouzja faltered big time here and moved his king instead of the queen, which allowed Gukesh to pounce and go for a queen trade, which nullified Firouzja’s advantage by the 30th move.

It was time for Firouzja to convert the game with a pawn advantage, while Gukesh had to show his defensive skills. And the duo battled it out on the board till the very end. Gukesh played with precision under extreme time pressure, even making a move with just two seconds left on his clock at one point.

In a knight-bishop ending (slightly favourable for the bishop — here for Firouzja) with one less pawn, Gukesh was at his best to keep Firouzja at bay, forcing him to share the spoils and move to three points.

The tournament is so tight that Gukesh, placed eighth in a field of 10 players, is just one point behind leader Caruana. With four spots available for the GCT finals, both Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa can qualify for the event set to be played in Brazil from September 26 to October 4.

Maxime-Vachier Lagrave leads the overall standings with 28 points from three events and is all but through to the finals. Aronian (23.5), Firouzja (22.5), and Caruana (20) were placed behind him, coming into the Sinquefield Cup. Praggnanandhaa is fifth (20) while Gukesh is eighth (16).

How can Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh qualify for the GCT finals?

As Praggnanandhaa sits just half a point behind fourth-placed Caruana, he could qualify by finishing ahead of the American in the Sinquefield Cup. If Caruana finishes above the Indian, the latter would need to finish 2.5 points ahead of Firouzja or 3.5 points ahead of Aronian to overtake them in the standings.

For Gukesh, the best way to qualify would be to win the Sinquefield Cup outright. The sole winner receives 13 points, which would take Gukesh to 29. He would then need at least two of the players above him — Aronian, Firouzja, Caruana or Praggnanandhaa — to have a poor finish (for example, in the bottom four) to strengthen his chances.