
R Praggnanandhaa defeated world championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov in the second round of the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis on Tuesday. The 21-year-old Indian grandmaster, playing White, capitalised on a blunder by Sindarov on move 82 and won after 95 moves. The victory puts Praggnanandhaa on 1.5 points, tying for the lead with Fabiano Caruana, Wesley So, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Sindarov will face world champion D Gukesh for the title in November.


Indian chess fans are already crowning Praggnanandhaa as Gukesh's equal after this win. That jumps the gun. Sindarov blundered on move 82 of a 95-move game that was headed for a draw. This is one classical victory, not a statement of dominance. The real test is the GCT Finals: can Praggnanandhaa finish in the top four? Watch his Black-game results in the remaining seven rounds.
Sources (4): thehindu.com, thehindu.com (2), timesnownews.com, hindustantimes.com
This story was synthesised by AI from the 4 sources linked above. Methodology and corrections.
Updated: this story now draws on 4 sources.
Ashin Xavier: interesting
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IO Repro: Repro test after fix 2 Oct. Safe to trash.