3 min readUpdated: May 17, 2026 11:36 PM IST
India’s R Praggnanandhaa managed to sidestep a potential banana-peel of an opponent in Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest in round 4 of the Super Chess Classic Romania 2026 tournament. Pragg’s 35-move draw on Sunday evening against Van Foreest means that the Indian prodigy has remained unbeaten so far at the event in Bucharest. While the result against the Dutchman is his third draw, Pragg managed to defeat World Championship contender Javokhir Sindarov, the one opponent he would have ached to defeat.
Pragg and van Foreest were part of the five-player leading pack heading into the fourth round, but the draw ensured they are half a point behind the tournament leader Vincent Keymer. The day started with the game between Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana not being played because of what the organisers said was a “medical issue” for the French-Iranian grandmaster.
Beginning with a Zukertort Opening, the Pragg versus van Foreest game didn’t light up at all and ended quickly as compared to the Indian grandmaster’s long-drawn-out game in the previous round.
When asked about his tournament so far by the Saint Louis Chess Club after the round, Pragg said: “The tournament so far has been good except the first game. Hopefully I can continue playing good chess.”
“The first round game didn’t go well but I managed to save it. The rest of the games were okay, but my play was good. Maybe in the first few moves today you can say (that they were not good) but I didn’t make any huge mistakes.”
Rising star
Van Foreest’s star has been rising rapidly in chess. After touching a rating of 2700 in 2021, the Dutch GM experienced a slump. But since the start of 2026, his career trajectory has been on the rise. From being World no 42 this time last year, Van Foreest finds himself as the World no 16 at the moment, one spot ahead of Pragg and three ahead of world champion Gukesh in the FIDE ratings list.
At the start of the year, at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Van Foreest had held Gukesh, Pragg, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Javokhir Sindarov, and Hans Niemann to draws while also handing a defeat to his country’s top rated grandmaster, Anish Giri, and German GM Vincent Keymer.
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Recently, Van Foreest had defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen to a defeat in classical chess at the TePe Sigeman Chess tournament. The other talking point from the tournament has been world championship contender Javokhir Sindarov not managing to get a single win in four rounds, a sharp contrast to his form at the Candidates.
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