Uzchess Cup 2025, Round 4

Praggnanandhaa catches up to Abdusattorov to share the lead.

The fighting chess continues as this young and ambitious field fights for tournament victory and, perhaps, to see who might end the event as the world’s #3 player. At the moment, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, still a teenager for another month and a half, has an excellent chance for both achievements. With his win over Javokhir Sindarov in round 4 he joined Nodirbek Abdusattorov in a tie for first with a +2 score and is up to 2779.9, 4.3 points behind current World #3 Fabiano Caruana. Of course, the tournament is wide open, and Arjun Erigaisi, who is .3 rating points ahead of Pragg, is only half a point behind in the tournament, so let’s wait to see how things shake out. It’s not impossible that Erigaisi, Pragg, and Abdusattorov all leapfrog Caruana, though it’s unlikely.

Enough about ratings; let’s discuss the round. Pragg seemed to surprise Sindarov with the rare 5.Qd3 against the Semi-Slav. Sindarov went astray as early as move 9, and although Praggnanandhaa didn’t win in error-free fashion he was always the one with the upper hand. After Sindarov’s 30…Qh5? White played great chess to finish the game, giving up the exchange to get his queenside passers in motion.

Abdusattorov wasn’t able to maintain his solo lead, drawing with Black against Erigaisi. Yet despite having the black pieces, he outplayed his opponent somewhat and had some chances in the late middlegame; Erigaisi had to defend well to stay alive.

The day’s other winner was Parham Maghsoodloo, though it required a bit of luck as his opponent, Nodirbek Yakubboev, would have had a crushing attack with 29.Nf5! (instead of 29.gxh6?). Several moves later it was Black whose attack was dangerous, and Yakubboev needed to play the paradoxical 33.Kg1 to stay alive. Instead, his 33.Ke1?, running towards his own pieces, was an error that allowed Maghsoodloo’s attack to become unstoppable, and with mate coming in a few moves White resigned after the precise 42…Qa1+.

Richard Rapport vs. Shamsiddin Vokhidov and Chithambaram Aravindh vs. Ian Nepomniachtchi were both hard-fought draws in which no one missed any clear winning chances.

Here are the games (with my comments), and here are the pairings for round 5:

Maghsoodloo (2.5) - Praggnanandhaa (3)

Abdusattorov (3) - Aravindh (1.5)

Vokhidov (1) - Erigaisi (2.5)

Nepomniachtchi (1.5) - Yakubboev (1.5)

Sindarov (2) - Rapport (1.5)