Grand chess tour: Praggnanandhaa nearly out of race in rapid

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa continued to reel under pressure and could only manage two draws out of three games, on the second day of the rapid section of Saint Louis Rapid and blitz chess tournament here.

The French duo of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja along with Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi shared the lead on eight points out of possible 12 under a rule that gives two points for a win in rapid and one for each draw.

American Levon Aronian holds the fourth spot on seven points — a full point ahead of compatriot Lenier Dominguez.

Three other Americans, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So are sharing the sixth spot with Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov. Meanwhile, with just three points in his kitty it could be the end of the road for Praggnanandhaa and the Indian will have to score heavily in the blitz section in order to improve his final standing.

It turned out to be another bad day for Praggnanandhaa, who had scored just a lone draw on the first day and had lost twice.

In need of a few victories to catch up with the others, the Indian missed the thread and his draws on the second day came against So and Abdusattorov while Caruana handed him his third defeat in the tournament. On the final day, the Indian will have to do well against Alireza, Nakamura and Dominguez to make amends.