Praggnanandhaa escapes with a draw against Daniil Dubov on a day of stalemates

The day saw 14 games from the 16 encounters ending in draws. This included those involving all five Indians, with Arjun Erigaisi settling for the quickest stalemate with world junior champion Pranav Venkatesh fighting on the longest.

Praggnanandhaa in action against Daniil Dubov in the FIDE world Cup. (FIDE/Eteri Kublashvili)

R Praggnanandhaa pulled off a Houdini-esque escape against Daniil Dubov in the first game of their fourth round clash on Tuesday, managing to extricate himself out of deep trouble as early as the 14th move before pulling off a draw. Both players will be back for the second game of the contest on Wednesday.

The day saw 14 games from the 16 encounters ending in draws. This included those involving all five Indians, with Arjun Erigaisi settling for the quickest stalemate with world junior champion Pranav Venkatesh fighting on the longest.

While Arjun’s game with black pieces against veteran Peter Leko lasted just 20 moves before a draw by threefold repetition, Pranav soldiered on for 82 moves against Uzbek prodigy Nodirbek Yakubboev before the game ended in a stalemate.

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Just like Arjun, Pentala Harikrishna (vs Nils Grandelius) and Karthik Venkataraman (vs Le Quang Leim) will have white pieces on Wednesday after draws in the first game.

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But the game of the day from an Indian perspective was Pragg’s battle against Dubov, known to be a tricky opponent. The mercurial Russian is a former world rapid champion who has been part of Magnus Carlsen’s team for his world championship battle against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

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The game saw Pragg in trouble early when the Indian played an inaccuracy as per the engine with a pawn push (14.d4). Soon, Dubov’s army was amassing on the kingside of the board where Pragg’s king was taking shelter behind a cavalcade of pawns. By the 19th move, Dubov had a pawn perched uncomfortably on the e3 square, which was soon joined by a bishop on g3 and another pawn on f4 providing cover to the original troublemaker on e3. The engine evaluation continued to favour Dubov for much of the game. By the 30th move, Pragg’s king would have felt the walls closing in on him as a black knight (on g3) and a bishop (on f5) moved in for the kill. By that stage, Pragg was not just fighting Dubov on the board, but the clock as well.

But with both players’ clocks running on fumes until time control appeared in sight, Dubov offered a queen trade on the 39th move which proved to be just the escape hatch Pragg needed to secure a draw. Two moves later, both players agreed to share honours.