6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial R6: Praggnanandhaa joins the lead with Aravindh

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/06/2025

R Praggnanandhaa defeated Benjamin Gledura (HUN) in the sixth round of 6th Stepan Avagyan Memorial. Praggnanandhaa seized his advantage when his opponent dropped pawn in the middlegame and got himself in a worse position. Aravindh Chithambaram made a quick draw in ten moves against Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB). Both Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh are now coleaders 4/6 each. The remaining three games ended in draws. Aram Hakobyan (ARM) and Dmitrij Kollars (GER) are the only two players trailing by a half point at 3.5/6 each. Round 7 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Hakobyan and Kollars in the fray

R Praggnanandhaa scored his second win of the event to join the lead with Aravindh Chithambaram | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Praggnanandhaa - Gledura: 1-0

R Praggnanandhaa (2767) faced Benjamin Gledura (HUN, 2668) three times in Classical rated games. He drew once and lost the remaining two. Their last Classical battle was over six years ago. Praggnanandhaa has gotten much stronger than his opponent over time.

Position after 20...Rb8?

In an already difficult position, Black decided to give up the c7-pawn 20...Rb8? 21.Qxc7 Rxb1 22.Rxb1 cxd4 23.cxd4 Qxa3 24.Qc8+ Nd8 25.Qc2 and White went on to convert his advantage comfortably.

R Praggnanandhaa defeated Benjamin Gledura (HUN) comfortably | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Aravindh Chithambaram and Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB) made a ten-move quick draw | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Xiangyu Xu (CHN) drew against Aram Hakobyan (ARM) | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Robert Hovhannisyan (ARM) - Dmitrij Kollars (GER): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Jonas Buhl Bjerre (DEN) - Samuel Sevian (USA): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Chess Academy of Armenia

Replay Round 6 live stream

Replay Round 6 live commentary by IM Lilit Mkrtchian (ARM) and GM Harshit Raja | Video: ChessBase India

Time Control

90 minutes for the first 40 moves + 30 minutes for the rest of the game (with 30 seconds increment starting from move one).

Prizes

The total prize fund is 7450000 AMD (≈ US$ 19325). The top three prizes are 3100000 AMD (≈ US$ 8041), 1 850 000 AMD (≈ US$ 4799) and 1500000 (≈ US$ 3891).

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.	Rtg		White	Result		Black	Rtg	No.
1	10	2623	GM	Xu Xiangyu	½ - ½	GM	Hakobyan Aram	2620	8
2	9	2758	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	1 - 0	GM	Gledura Benjamin	2663	7
3	1	2635	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	½ - ½	GM	Kollars Dmitrij	2625	6
4	2	2749	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	½ - ½	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	2665	5
5	3	2641	GM	Bjerre Jonas Buhl	½ - ½	GM	Sevian Samuel	2694	4

Details

Standings after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2
1	9	GM	Praggnanandhaa R	IND	2758	4	11,25	3
2	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2749	4	11,25	2
3	8	GM	Hakobyan Aram	ARM	2620	3,5	9,50	4
4	6	GM	Kollars Dmitrij	GER	2625	3,5	9,25	4
5	4	GM	Sevian Samuel	USA	2694	3	9,25	3
6	3	GM	Bjerre Jonas Buhl	DEN	2641	3	8,75	2
7	5	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek	UZB	2665	2,5	6,75	3
8	10	GM	Xu Xiangyu	CHN	2623	2,5	6,50	3
9	1	GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	ARM	2635	2	6,75	2
10	7	GM	Gledura Benjamin	HUN	2663	2	5,75	4

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.	Rtg		White	Result		Black	Rtg	No.
1	4	2694	GM	Sevian Samuel		GM	Xu Xiangyu	2623	10
2	5	2665	GM	Yakubboev Nodirbek		GM	Bjerre Jonas Buhl	2641	3
3	6	2625	GM	Kollars Dmitrij		GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2749	2
4	7	2663	GM	Gledura Benjamin		GM	Hovhannisyan Robert	2635	1
5	8	2620	GM	Hakobyan Aram		GM	Praggnanandhaa R	2758	9

Details

Schedule

Wednesday	28 May at 19:00	Opening Ceremony
Thursday	29 May at 15:00	Round 1
Friday	30 May at 15:00	Round 2
Saturday	31 May at 15:00	Round 3
Sunday	1 June at 15:00	Round 4
Monday	2 June at 15:00	Round 5
Tuesday	3 June at 15:00	Round 6
Wednesday	4 June at 15:00	Round 7
Thursday	5 June at 15:00	Round 8
Friday	6 June at 11:00	Round 9
Friday	6 June at 18:00	Closing Ceremony