Draws galore leave Sinquefield Cup on knife’s edge

R Praggnanandhaa and D Gukesh remain in hunt for title

The Sinquefield Cup 2025 in Saint Louis remains a slow burner as all five clashes in the sixth round ended in draws for the second straight round on Sunday. This effectively means Fabiano Caruana still leads the fifth and final event of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT). The American sits on 4 points, courtesy his wins over defending champion Alireza Firouzja and last-placed Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan. Close on his heels, just half a point behind, are R. Praggnanandhaa and Levon Aronian, who both started the event with impressive wins before drawing the next five rounds. D Gukesh remains in eighth spot, one point behind the leader.

India No.1 Praggnanandhaa played out a draw against Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda, while world champion D Gukesh survived an attack from Firouzja.

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.

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