GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu broke into the only lead simply earlier than the ultimate spherical of the Superbet Chess Basic Romania 2025. He defeated GM Wesley So from the black aspect of a Benko Gambit. There was another decisive consequence: World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, additionally with Black, took benefit of GM Levon Aronian‘s unsound pawn sacrifice to attain his first win and climb out of final place.
The final spherical is on Friday, Could 16 and begins one hour earlier. That is at 7:30 a.m. ET / 13:30 CET / 5:00 p.m. IST.
The 2 Indian grandmasters within the event each scored wins with Black in spherical eight.
Spherical 8 Outcomes
The previous co-leaders, GMs Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Fabiano Caruana, are simply behind Praggnanandhaa.
Standings After Spherical 8
So 0-1 Praggnanandhaa
A win, with the black items, in opposition to one of many world’s most strong gamers was surprising, Praggnanandhaa mentioned, “nevertheless it’s good to have this within the bag.” He goes into the final spherical with a half-point cushion, so a draw with White in opposition to Aronian means he’ll not less than make it to playoffs.
As for his recreation in opposition to So, he and his second settled on the Benko Gambit with Black, a gap that is not so widespread on the highest degree. He quipped, although: “We must always make the Benko the brand new Berlin in d4!”, referencing the Berlin Protection that is turn into a preferred alternative in opposition to 1.e4 on account of its solidity.
We must always make the Benko the brand new Berlin in d4!
—Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu
Sacrificing a pawn with the black items is not to everyone’s style, however Pragg mentioned, “It is not likely like I am risking an excessive amount of,” including that even when White may be very well-prepared “it isn’t simple to search out all of the correct strikes over the board, so I feel that is what occurred.” Though So hit him with the difficult 13.Ne5, Praggnanandhaa managed to succeed in a heavy-piece endgame with a slight benefit the place he mentioned, “White should not be worse, nevertheless it’s not simple to discover a bailout.”
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the complete Recreation of the Day under.
Aronian 0-1 Gukesh
Profitable the event is out of the query for both participant, however ending on a excessive word is the most effective one can do. Regardless of having one among his worst tournaments ever (in accordance with Svidler), Gukesh should still end on a excessive word.
The essential second, and mistake, of the sport was Aronian’s pawn sacrifice 16.f4?, after which Gukesh mentioned “the sport bought fascinating.” It is potential Aronian combined one thing up as a result of the engine severely dislikes the sacrifice, and Gukesh transformed the benefit along with his trademark, exact calculation.
Gukesh, coming into the event as the highest seed, is now on 3.5/8 however can not less than end on 50 p.c if he wins once more on Friday. The identical goes for Aronian, who’s on the identical rating and can have Black in opposition to the event chief.
Caruana ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
The sharpest opening was absolutely this one, which began as an English Opening Adorjan Protection, which GM Peter Svidler was proud to say was the advice in his Grunfeld Chessable course. Vachier-Lagrave certainly adopted Svidler’s line from the course for the primary eight strikes, however his deviation with 9…d6 (as an alternative of the really useful 9…Qe7) was one thing Svidler particularly warned in opposition to. Did MVL have a unique opinion, or did he combine issues up?
We bought our reply two strikes later, when Vachier-Lagrave’s 11…Nf6? might have been a decisive mistake already. Caruana achieved an enormous benefit and missed a couple of wins—The road beginning with 21.Bxc5 was, in accordance with Caruana, most likely essentially the most findable. However, finally, Vachier-Lagrave escaped; the important thing transfer was 21…Kf7! that solved all of his issues.
Which means that, if he desires to win the occasion, Caruana’s in a must-win scenario with the black items in opposition to Gukesh subsequent.
Firouzja ½-½ Abdusattorov
Firouzja might have additionally missed some small possibilities in his recreation in opposition to GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, although he was by no means near a profitable benefit. We noticed the Uzbek number-one repeat the identical opening he employed in opposition to Vachier-Lagrave in spherical six, although this time as an alternative of settlement to a draw on transfer 10 we noticed a full-fledged combat. It was an Accelerated Sicilian Dragon, with White going for a Maroczy Bind.
By transfer 32, Firouzja was certain he had the benefit, saying, “I’m higher right here for certain as a result of my construction is best and my king is secure already.” And even when that slipped, he mentioned “I believed I outplayed him [again] after the time management.” At each flip, nevertheless, Firouzja’s benefit wasn’t greater than slight, and Abdusattorov held the draw.
Duda ½-½ Deac
An underdog on paper, GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac has had an ideal event to date—and, arguably, might have even finished a lot better if not for situations like recreation one, the place he made a one-move blunder. He held comfortably in opposition to the 4 Knights Scotch, GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda weapon of alternative, to remain a degree behind the chief. This was the one recreation that did not characteristic a lot of a combat.
There is a world by which Deac ties for first—that’s, if Praggnanandhaa loses his recreation and if Deac beats Firouzja. As for Duda, he is alone in final place and can be dealing with Vachier-Lagrave—who should win—within the final spherical.
The celebs have aligned fairly nicely for Praggnanandhaa, contemplating two of his trailers have Black in spherical 9. However let’s keep in mind that final 12 months Caruana was within the sole lead and misplaced his ultimate classical recreation. He salvaged the title by profitable the playoffs.
Whether or not we’ll have an outright winner or whether or not it’s going to be determined by playoffs stays to be seen. Catch the motion on Friday, one hour earlier!
rewatch?
The 2025 Superbet Romania Chess Basic is the second occasion on the 2025 Grand Chess Tour and runs from Could 7 to 16 on the Grand Resort Bucharest in Romania. It is a 10-player round-robin with a time management of 90 minutes for 40 strikes, adopted by 30 extra minutes for the remainder of the sport, plus a 30-second increment beginning on transfer one. The prize fund is $350,000.
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