It was a good round, even if all the games finished peacefully.
The shortest draw was by far the most interesting, a wild Open Ruy between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Praggnanandhaa R. You could analyze that game on your own for hours and keep finding new and cool ideas. It’s possible that the whole game was prep; one way or another, it was impressive and very entertaining.
The next shortest game was between Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. MVL was gradually outplaying his opponent, with Black, and then repeated moves in a position that was definitely superior. Time trouble? It seems like a position where time shouldn’t be much of a factor, and as he’s not that far behind the leaders it’s odd that he called it a day when he did.
The game between Bogdan-Daniel Deac and Alireza Firouzja went a bit longer in the move count, but it was by far the least interesting game of the round. The game went to move 45, but could easily have ended 20 moves sooner.
The last two games were very long and saw missed opportunities. Fabiano Caruana was winning against Gukesh D. with Black at least twice, though not simply, and missed an opportunity to double his lead over his closest pursuers. While Caruana leads the tournament and is in generally good form, this is the second game in which he has failed to convert a decisive advantage.
Finally, Wesley So likewise failed to convert a winning advantage, in his case against Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
With two rounds to go, Caruana continues to lead, half a point ahead of Gukesh, Pragg, and Firouzja.
Here are today’s games, with my analysis - especially of the Nepo-Pragg game.