Gukesh suffers shock defeat, Praggnanandhaa in joint lead at Superbet Classic

World champion D Gukesh faced a surprising setback in the fourth round of the Superbet Classic, losing to French Grandmaster Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in just 31 moves. The top-seeded Indian, who entered the USD 350,000 tournament as a favourite, is still searching for his first win with five rounds left to play.Gukesh, playing black, opted for an uncommon line in the Scotch opening but struggled in the ensuing middle game.Vachier-Lagrave capitalised on weak queenside pawns and exploited positional frailties to notch up a clinical victory, pushing Gukesh down the standings.Go Beyond The Boundary with our YouTube channel. Meanwhile, fellow Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa continued his steady run with a quiet draw against Romania’s Bogdan-Daniel Deac. The game saw early exchanges and lacked fireworks, finishing in 35 moves, but the half-point was enough to keep Praggnanandhaa in joint lead.Who's that IPL player?American Levon Aronian was the only other player to score a full point in the round, defeating Poland’s Jan-Krzysztof Duda for his first win of the tournament. The remaining games — Fabiano Caruana vs Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja vs Wesley So — ended in draws.After four rounds, the leaderboard is tightly packed. Praggnanandhaa, Caruana, and Vachier-Lagrave share the lead with 2.5 points each. Firouzja, So, Aronian, and Deac follow closely with 2 points. Gukesh, Abdusattorov, and Duda trail with 1.5 points each.Results round 4:Deac Bogdan Daniel (Rou, 2) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 2.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 2.5) beat D Gukesh (Ind, 1.5); Duda Jan Krzysztof (pol, 1.5) lost to Levon Aronian (Usa, 2); Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 2) drew with Wesley So (Usa, 2); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 1.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 2.5).