Aravindh faced the Sicilian defense and Shankland equalised quite easily. An exchange spree led to a very slight advantage for Shankland but the endgame was always closer to a draw.
The players eventually arrived at a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame where an extra pawn for Shankland did not matter much.
The next round will see the two leaders pitted against each other and Praggnanadhaa will play with white.
In the challengers’ section, Divya Deshmukh played out a draw with Ma Qun of China and took her tally to 1.5 points from four games.
This section is jointly led by Nodirbek Yakubboev of Uzbekistan and Jonas Buhl Bjerre of Denmark, who both have three points apiece.
Results of Round 4: Aravindh Chithambaram (IND, 3) drew with Sam Shankland (USA, 2); Vincent Keymer (GER, 2) lost to R Praggnanandhaa (IND, 3); Wei Yi (CHN, 1.5) beat David Navara (CZE, 1.5); Gurel Ediz (TUR, 1.5) drew with Anish Giri (NED, 2) Nguyen Thai Dai Van (CZE, 1.5) drew with Quang Leim Le (VIE, 2).
Challengers: Stamatis Kourkoulous-Arditis (GER, 1.5) drew with Ivan Salgado Lopez (ESP, 2); Vaclav Finek (CZE, 1.5) lost to Marc`andria Maurizzi (FRA, 2); Divya Deshmukh (IND, 1.5) drew with Ma Qun (CHN, 2); Jonas Buhl Bzerre (DEN, 3) drew with Nodirbek Yakubboev (UZB, 2); Nemec Jychym (CZE, 1.5) lost to Richard Stalmach (CZE, 1.5).
