Praggnanandhaa stays ahead despite defeat

Second seed Nihal Sarin jumps to tied third with four rounds to go

Notwithstanding a surprise defeat in the 15th round, R. Praggnanandhaa continued to lead in the online Polgar Challenge, the first leg of the $100,000 Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour on Saturday.

The third-seeded Indian held a half-point lead over top seed Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov after aggregating 12 points. The two title-aspirants are due to meet in the final round, with Praggnanandhaa playing black.

With four rounds to go, second seed Nihal Sarin jumped to tied third at 11 points with Awonder Liang (USA).

D. Gukesh was sharing the sixth spot with two others at 10 points while Leon Mendonca was ninth with 9.5 points.

Three wins

Praggnanandhaa continued his fine form by winning against Christopher Yoo (USA), Polina Shuvalova (Russia) and Jonas Bjerre (Denmark).

Gukesh held Praggnananandhaa in the 14th round before German-lad Vincent Keymer shocked the leader.

The defeat did not hurt Praggnanandhaa as much because Nihal Sarin overpowered second placed Abdusattorov. This result protected Praggnanandhaa’s half-point lead. Team Polgar was 75-71 ahead after three rounds since the tally of only the top-nine players from each team was taken into account after the withdrawal of Team Kramnik’s Dinara Saduakassova.