Saint Louis (USA): Indian grandmasters D. Gukesh and R. Praggnanadhaa played their eighth draw in as many games at the Sinquefield Cup, which is part of the Grand Chess Tour.

While World Championship challenger Gukesh made peace with Dutchman Anish Giri in just 23 moves, Praggnanadhaa followed suit and parted ways with local hero Fabiano Caruana in 28 moves.

Since all games in the eighth round ended in a draw, Frenchman Alireza Firouzja won the Grand Chess Tour early and was entitled to a bonus of 100,000 USD after his successful participation.

In the eighth round, Firouzja played the longest game against Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, which also ended peacefully after 80 moves.

In the other two matches of the day in the ten-player double round-robin tournament, Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan shared the point with Ding Liren of China and France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave played a draw with Wesley So of the USA.

Alireza increased his record to an unassailable 5.5 points from eight matches and Caruana is the only player who can catch him in the points table, provided Alireza loses his final match against Praggnanandhaa and the American himself beats Giri.

Even if he loses, Alireza will win the Tour for the first time due to his better overall score.

“It is very difficult to win a Tour. Every Tour is difficult to win, but this is the strongest Tour in the world. I am very happy, but it is very tiring and I feel exhausted, but I am very happy,” Alireza noted.

Third place is still shared by five players with four points each: Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Vachier-Lagrave, So and Abdusattorov.

Nepomniachtchi and Liren follow with 3.5 points, half a point ahead of Anish Giri, who is in last place.

Gukesh had to get significantly less out of a routine Ruy Lopez with Black, as Giri tried to make a few pawn gains in the early middlegame in order to shake hands by repetition of moves.

Praggnanandhaa started with the English Opening, facing one of Caruana’s favourite lines. The result was again a draw by repetition.

Results Round 8:

Ian Nepomniachtchi (Fid, 3.5) played a draw against Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5.5)

Ding Liren (Chn, 3.5) draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Usa, 4)

R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 4) draw against Fabiano Caruana (USA, 4.5)

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4) played a draw against Wesley So (Usa, 4)

Anish Giri (Ned, 3) played a draw against D Gukesh (Ind, 4).