Grand Chess Tour: R Praggnanandhaa becomes first Indian to win title

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In the Grand Chess Tour final, India’s Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated Fabiano Caruana of the USA. With this, he became the first Indian to win the Grand Chess Tour title.

On Thursday, after trailing Caruana by six points at the start of the day at the Saint Louis Chess Club, the Indian made a strong turnaround. Praggnanandhaa secured a 15-13 win to secure his first GCT title. He also received USD 200,000 as the winning prize.

Following the triumph in this edition, Praggnanandhaa has also sealed a place in the tournament’s next edition along with Caruana and Wesley So, who defeated Germany’s Vincent Keymer by 18-12 to finish third in the event.

Speaking about his victory, the Indian side that he didn’t feel that he would get many chances to dominate against Caruana.

Grand Chess Tour: India’s Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa speaks about his triumph

“Honestly, I didn’t think I had many chances today. It’s not every day that you can get one win from Fabi, but to get two, it was important in the rapid,” he said on Chess.com.

The 21-year-old Chennai lad, who has been mentored by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, started the day six points behind, but pulled another rabbit out of the hat and took a lead of two points after winning both the rapid games (four points to winner per game).

It was even-stevens in the subsequent four games of blitz, with Praggnanandhaa and Caruana winning one each while the remaining two were drawn.

The two-point lead at the end of the rapid games proved decisive for the Indian Grandmaster. The first game of the blitz section was a drawn affair before Caruana won the second to level the scores at 12-12.

A determined Praggnanandhaa prevailed over his opponent in the third game to restore his two-point lead (14-12).
Had Caruana won the last blitz game, he would have forced two more games with the peculiar time control, followed by armageddon. But a draw was enough for Praggnanandhaa to win the match, and he did just that to seal a famous title.

(With PTI Inputs)

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