Aronian goes for the king's pawn! Is he thirsting for a dynamic game today!?
Now, his game plan becomes somewhat clear. Aronian wants a complex game today, but not in a theoretical opening. He just wants a completely original position, where he hopes to outplay his opponent from setups he has definitely studied deeply.
Now, there is a danger that there would be a flurry of exchanges, which might enable Black to achieve equality easily.
The game has reached a near-equal position now, where neither side can expect to eke out any advantage. It looks like Pragg has come quite well-armed today to steer the game towards calm waters.
Both sides have castled, and it is a completely equal position now!
Pragg is playing his moves quite quickly, thus indicating his preparedness for the opening.
The peace treaty is very much on the table now. In fact, that is the only thing on the table now!!
One more exchange of pieces. The game has now entered a dull endgame, where neither side will have any chances to play for a win.
Aronian at least signals his intentions to keep a favorable pawn structure. By keeping his central pawn on the dark square, he wishes to keep a 'good bishop' that belongs to the light squares. But it is a question as to whether this would be helpful for White in any way.
Pragg gets emboldened to fix the position and close down all avenues for the white king to move forward. Though his bishop might get inactive in the long run, he is confident that Aronian will not be able to take advantage of it.
Though Aronian played one of those rarest of rare continuations in the Four Knights opening, he found Pragg well-equipped to face it with Black.
The game quickly moved into equal territory, as Pragg managed to exchange pieces at a regular interval and move into an equal endgame. The protagonists signed the peace treaty quite easily.
Now, Pragg will have to wait and watch if he will have to play with Caruana on tiebreaks, in case he doesn't be able to win today's game.
All the rooks too have now vanished off the board, and our protagonists are now inching closer to signing a peace treaty.
Welcome to the last round of the Sinquefield Cup! We have arguably the most exciting pairings for a single day, as the tournament joint-leader Caruana clashes with World Champion Gukesh, while Aronian clashes with the other tournament leader, Praggnanandhaa. What a matchup for a crucial round!
First of all, Pragg has already overtaken Firouzja in the tour standings, which means that he just needs to stave off Wesley's push to overtake him in the standings. This means that Pragg will have one eye on Wesley playing white pieces in the last round against Abdusattorov, who has not been in the best of form in this tournament. If Wesley wins that game, Pragg definitely shouldn't lose his game so as not to allow Wesley to gain more Tour points than him.
Does that mean that he needs to play it safe today? Hardly so! After all, the best way to play for a draw is to play for a win!
From Aronian's point of view, GCT standings are complicated! In the final analysis, it all boils down to Aronian not allowing Pragg and Wesley to overtake him in the GCT points, with Aronian having a lead of three and a half and four points over them in the tour standings. Which means that Aronian may not be okay with a draw today! All this makes the picture complicated!!
When it comes to the game, we simply can't predict much, except that Aronian would like to control the game and play.
Verdict: We may not see a tactical battle today, but rather a protracted, strategic struggle, where Aronian would like to keep control and push for a win, but without much risk.