There were three decisive games in round seven of the 2025 Sinquefield Cup. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu beat GM Alireza Firouzja to join GM Fabiano Caruana in the lead on 4.5/7. GM Wesley So, in his first win of the tournament, beat World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju and is a half-point behind the leaders. GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda landed another blow, and his first win, on GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
Caruana made a quick draw with GM Levon Aronian, who is tied with So on 4/7, while GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave vs. GM Sam Sevian was the only other draw of the day.
Round eight is on Tuesday, August 26, starting at 1:30 p.m. ET / 19:30 CEST / 11 p.m. IST.
Standings After Round 7
Caruana ½-½ Aronian
The tournament leader made a quick draw with one of his closest rivals, who’s a half-point behind. Considering the tournament situation, taking large risks wasn’t part of the game plan, as Caruana explained, “Qualification is still the number-one goal and I’m still on track for it… of course I would like to press for a win, but a draw makes more sense than risking a lot.”
Aronian went for the same 8…Qb6 line of the French he’s already played twice in St. Louis. His 15…Rc8 was the first surprise, however, as Aronian had played the other main moves, 15…Qh4+ and 15…Qd8, in earlier games. The Armenian-American explained that all three options are sound, and it’s an advantage for Black if you know how to play all three of them.
Caruana thought for a while about whether to go for it with 17.f5, but said, “I kind of vaguely recalled some lines here, but they involved me sac’ing material… and of course he knows these lines.” 17.Qf2, played, was essentially a draw offer, and Aronian knew how to force it.
Firouzja 0-1 Praggnanandhaa
“This was important, for sure,” said Praggnanandhaa, who knocked down one of his closest competitors in the race to qualify for Sao Paulo.
Praggnanandhaa won the game from the black side of the Rossolimo Sicilian. He said the position felt like it turned in his favor after 15…Na6!, although the engine still says it’s equal there, but the objective turning point came on move 19. As Pragg pointed out, White should bail out with 19.Nxc6, whereas after the game continuation 19.d4? c5! Black got the kind of position Grunfeld players dream about: two bishops against a collapsing white center.
There was one last, miraculous chance for Firouzja to save the game with 27.Qd6, trading queens, a move Praggnanandhaa only briefly considered and definitely misevaluated. It also didn’t help the French number-one that he had under one minute by this point. GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day from start to finish below.
So 1-0 Gukesh
So inflicted a second loss on Gukesh and said, “It’s a big deal beating the world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju. He’s very young, very strong. It’s always an honor to play him. He calculates like a computer.”
The Berlin Defense was a surprise for So, who expected his opponent to play for the win with Black. Although the world champion landed a novelty on the board, 11…Bh4, So said that he’d looked at the position before—for the black side. After many accurate moves, the critical moment came when Gukesh should have sacrificed the exchange with 20…d5!, the only move for full equality. Instead, he moved his rook quickly, and got a bad position.
So put his two bishops to work and won a pawn, then another pawn, and finally a queen (Gukesh sacrificed it). There were a few moments he could have been more accurate, like 24.Bf4, but it was enough to convincingly beat the world number-six.
Abdusattorov 0-1 Duda
Duda scored his first win against the still-suffering Abdusattorov, who has now lost four games in seven rounds. Duda said this was revenge for his loss in the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2025 in May, but he was still down about the quality of this game, saying, “It was anything but a good game.”
In a Four Knights Opening, Duda managed to get a Maroczy Bind type of pawn structure with the pawns on e4 and c4, but after a maneuvering phase the Uzbek number-one broke out with 24…f5!. Losing control, Duda said after this move, “I felt like it would be good to bail out, I think.” He held the balance, the players shuffled for a few moves, and we could have seen a repetition of moves if Abdusattorov played 31…Nh5. Duda even admitted he would have repeated with 32.Qe1 in that case.
Instead, Abdusattorov played for the win with 31.Nd7?? and fell into a nasty tactical sequence that Duda showed in the game.
Vachier-Lagrave ½-½ Sevian
The only other game to end in a draw was one of the longest. Vachier-Lagrave played the English Opening, a departure from his trusty 1.e4, and achieved an advantage out of the opening. Sevian wriggled out and was better himself at some point. Deep in the queen and knight endgame, Sevian even had chances to press a bit harder.
As GM Peter Svidler showed on the broadcast, 45…Ne5!? would have forced White to find some only moves just to survive. Instead, we saw liquidation into the pure knight endgame and, eventually, a draw.
In round eight Vachier-Lagrave will have the white pieces against Caruana. The other tournament leader, Praggnanandhaa, will have White against So, one of the closest trailers.
Round 8 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.
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