GM Fabiano Caruana won a second game in a row, this time with Black against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov, to take the sole lead of the 2025 Sinquefield Cup with 3/4. All other games were drawn, leaving GM Levon Aronian and GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu trailing him by half a point.
GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave missed a definite chance against World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju in an endgame, and GM Alireza Firouzja sacrificed an exchange against GM Wesley So, but both ended in draws. We saw two quicker draws in GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu vs. GM Sam Sevian and GM Levon Aronian vs. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda.
Round five is on Friday, August 21, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET / 19:30 CEST / 11 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 4
Abdusattorov 0-1 Caruana
Abdusattorov, who lost his first two games, stopped the bleeding with a safe draw in round three. In round four, he returned energized for a fight and played the risky and brave 15.0-0-0. The engine prefers Black, but the positions certainly look scary, an assessment Caruana expressed in the interview.
The American GM managed to keep his king just safe enough, move by move. He later found the interesting 18.g6!? to sacrifice a pawn but coordinate his pieces. What could be more natural than taking the offered pawn that’s in front of the opponent’s king? Abdusattorov did (though he wasn’t worse yet), and Caruana struck back with a counter-attack with …b5 and …b4, eventually taking over the game. GM Rafael Leitao reviews Caruana’s second win, our Game of the Day, below. It will be added soon.
Gukesh ½-½ Vachier-Lagrave
Vachier-Lagrave outplayed his opponent for a fleeting moment but wasn’t able to put up a full point in what was the closest we got to another decisive result. It a second disappointing result considering he was winning against Aronian in the previous round too but failed to convert it. “It’s a pity,” he said, but he also mentioned that you learn to forget about it and move on. “It’s not the first and not the last time.”
It’s not the first and not the last time.
—Maxime Vachier-Lagrave
He really had just one chance and one chance only. After 30.Nxf5? Vachier-Lagrave had a very findable winning line starting with 31…Rg8+, and once that was missed there was no other shot.
Speaking in more detail about yesterday’s game, Vachier-Lagrave seemed to put the missed opportunity behind him, saying:
It was unpleasant of course, but I also felt like I didn’t make the most of my game also at the early stage. So I was not in great shape overall in that game, so it means a draw is in a way logical.
So ½-½ Firouzja
This was another exciting encounter, especially after Firouzja sacrificed the exchange on c5. We got a peculiar endgame where Black, as compensation, had a beautiful pawn chain, an extra pawn, and a powerful knight on d3. On move 32, So faced a crossroads: he could either sacrifice a pawn and press for the win with the messy 32.Kd2 (the computer gives White an advantage) or accept a draw by threefold repetition. He went for the latter and extinguished the flames.
Aronian ½-½ Duda
This game, the first to finish, was over in about an hour. Duda played the QGD Tarrasch, which may have been a surprise for Aronian. Aronian went for an endgame with the bishop pair, but Duda had no trouble proving that it’s holdable for Black.
About the new opening, Duda said, “I decided for this tournament to try new stuff and see how it goes. Just not to play Petroff and Berlin all the time.”
Duda didn’t mince words in the interview, directly saying that classical chess “is not my favorite time control, that’s for sure.” He prefers blitz—”the less thinking, you know, the better.” He also said, “I think it will be my last [classical] tournament for at least several months.” He declined playing in the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss and 2025 FIDE World Cup, two major pathways to the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament.
Praggnanandhaa ½-½ Sevian
We saw another Tarrasch in this matchup, and it was the second game to end. It’s nothing lost and nothing gained for Praggnanandhaa, one of the leaders, while Sevian makes his fourth draw against the world’s elite—a great result so far.
There was hope for a sharp game if Black could respond to 12.bxc4 with 12…dxc4, but Sevian went for the saner option, and he calculated a long variation out to equality after 17…Qe5.
Caruana, the leader, will have the white pieces against So in round five, and it will be the last round before a rest day.
Round 5 Pairings
The 2025 Sinquefield Cup, taking place from August 18 to 28 in St. Louis, is the last leg and final classical event before the Final of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour. It is a single round-robin with 10 players with a time control of 90 minutes for the first 40 moves followed by 30 minutes for the rest of the game plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. It features a $350,000 prize fund.
