R Praggnanandhaa Beats D Gukesh in All-Indian Chess Showdown at The Sinquefield Cup Tournament

Chess grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beat fellow Indian chess star and world champion D Gukesh in a highly-anticipated clash at the Sinquefield Cup 2025 tournament on Tuesday (August 19). 

Praggananandhaa faced the Queen's gambit which was accepted by Gukesh, who played this game with the black pieces.

The solid approach was under the scrutiny early as Gukesh spent a lot of time in a known position and went for a dubious set-up that involved an early exchange of queens.

Praggnanandhaa had the Bishop pair as, playing with white pieces, this gave him a distinct advantage. 

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Huge Win For Pragg vs Gukesh

Making things worse for himself, Gukesh also fell short of time and had to try out some really difficult moves to stay in the game.

Relentless, as he is, Praggnanandhaa did not let the position slip out of hand as he won a pawn by force and the rest was easy. The game lasted just 36 moves, which showcases how dominant Pragg really was on the day.

Incidentally, this was the first time in almost 2 years that Gukesh lost in a classicial game to Praggnanandhaa.

"I don't really know what happened today. I think he was a bit off. Last year, I messed up some good positions against him, I think I did not beat him (in classical) for almost two years now, so finally it's good to get a win," said Praggnanandhaa after the game.

Pragg now shares the lead with the unstoppable Levon Aronian of United States, who outsmarted Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan after the opening round on Monday.

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How Other Matches Played Out

In other games of the first round Fabiano Caruana of USA played out a draw with Duda Jan-Kryzstof of Poland while wild card Samuel Savian split the point with American country-mate Wesley So while Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France also drew with another Frenchman Alireza Firouzja. 

With eight rounds still to come in the USD 350,000 prize money tournament, as many as six players share the third spot behind Praggnanandhaa and Aronian while Gukesh and Abdusattorov are at the bottom of the heap hoping to open their respective accounts in the next round.