MVL is back to his pet opening, a system that he has been loyally playing for decades now.
Duda initiates a pawn trade, so that he can build up a strong center.
The Classical Approach
This is the tried and true way of seeking to pressure Grunfeld players, by going for that fast pawn exchange and then setting up an imposing pawn center.
MVL was happy to chop off the knights, in order to gain time in development. On the other hand, Duda is also happy to see this as it strengthens his central pawn presence.
MVL fianchettoes his bishop, not only preparing to castle in the near future, but also setting up the typical pawn break over the coming move or two.
Duda strengthens his center.
MVL goes for the pawn break, undermining the center straight away.
Pressuring the undefended pawn, at the same time leaving it pinned against Duda's king.
Duda defends the pawn indirectly. The point is if MVL captures it, then Duda would be able to slide his rook across.
MVL quickly castles. Now it's up to Duda to choose whether or not he wants to fight, by for example stepping his bishop out one square. The risk here is that Duda might just step his knight forward to hit the queen, which is a well-known forcing line that leads to an immediate draw.
The writing is on the wall
Looks like Duda has no interest in fighting. You can't really blame him, given that he's not in a position to contest any sort of prize money or tour points. And as for MVL, he's already secured his spot in the GCT Finals after a middling tournament here, so he's happy to play ball from the Black side.
The reason it's a guaranteed draw from here, is that at this point if Duda doesn't force it, then MVL will have 'taken the money and ran' with the extra pawn.
This is the key idea for Duda. The queen has nowhere to turn to other than the square it came from, thus setting up a 3-fold repetition by force.
The position repeats, and the players will now blitz out the final couple of moves of the game before signing the scoresheets.
Unfortunately for us viewers, the players went for the most pragmatic option today, forcing a draw without any fight. You can't really blame either of them, since it's the tail end of what's been a tough tournament, and neither of them were fighting for a podium finish.
Let's turn the focus on the remaining games. A quick glance at the positions in those games suggests that the remaining players in the round are very much up for a fight, so hopefully this game will prove to be very much the exception to the final round.
Sinquefield 2025 wraps up!
It's the final round of the penultimate event of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour, as the players vie for not just a podium finish in this event, but qualification to the GCT Finals at the end of September.
In the tournament lead at the moment stand Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa, both on 5/8 points. Lagging just behind are Levon Aronian and Wesley So, both sitting on 4.5 points. It's going to be a tense affair today. Caruana faces off against World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju, while Pragg faces the tricky task of the Black pieces against Levon Aronian. Wesley So, for his part, might have the 'easiest' pairing, with White against a struggling Abdusattorov. But then again, Nodirbek won his first game of the tournament yesterday against Alireza, so he will be feeling more confident and looking to close the tournament on a high.
In terms of both prize money, and qualifications for the GCT Finals, this particular clash between Duda and MVL is not in any way critical. Duda has no hope of booking one of the four spots available, while MVL has already secured his place given his strong standing in the tour heading into this final event.
Will this mean that the players are going to be in a more peaceful mood today? Or will we get a war all the same?! In any case, with the selection of high-stakes games in this final round, I suspect it will be an entertaining day of chess. Let's see!