World chess champion D Gukesh’s hunt for a win continued as Iran’s Parham Maghsoodloo held the Indian ace to a draw in the seventh round of the Masters section of the Prague International Chess Festival here. With just two rounds remaining, Gukesh sits on the last spot with two points.

.The four draws have come alongside three painful defeats and this could well be the time for the youngest ever world champion to look for certain reforms in his game

Meanwhile, the other Indian in the event, defending champion Aravindh Chithambaram, drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan to remain on a 50 percent score after seven games.

The lone winner of the day was Vincent Keymer of Germany, who defeated David Anton Guijarro of Spain, leaving Dutchman Jorden van Foreest half a point ahead of his closest rivals David Navara of Czech Republic and Nodribek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan.

Gukesh employed the Berlin defence and got a solid position with his black pieces against Maghsoodloo. The Iranian was happy to keep the position intact for a long time and once black’s queen side pawns were mobilised, white was not too far away to take adequate measures in the centre. The game was drawn after 49 moves.

In the Challengers section, Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh had another good result, holding Jonas Buhl Bjerre of Denmark to a draw, while Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly finally scored his first victory at the expense of Jiner Zhu of China.

Round 7 results:

Masters: Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 3.5) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 2); Aravindh Chithambaram (Ind, 3) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (Uzb, 3); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 3.5) beat David Anton Guijarro (Esp, 3.5); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 4.5) drew with Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 5); David Navara (Cze, 4.5) drew with Hans Moke Niemann (Usa, 2.5).

Challengers: Thomas Beerdsen (Ned, 3.5) lost to Daniil Yuffa (Esp, 4); Surya Shekhar Ganguly (Ind, 2.5) beat Jiner Zhu (Chn, 2); Finek Vanclav (Cze, 5) drew with Benjamin Gledura (Hun, 3.5) Nemec Jachym (Cze, 4) beat Hrbek Stepan (Cze, 3.5); Jonas Bjerre Buhl (Den, 3.5) drew with Divya Deshmukh (Ind, 3.5).

Also read: Aravindh Chithambaram beats world champion Gukesh