R Praggnanandhaa (left) during the Grand Chess Tour in St. Louis, USA. Photo: X/@GrandChessTour
Praggnanandhaa scripts history, wins Grand Chess Tour title
The Indian prevailed over Fabiano Caruana 15-13 to win the GCT title and pocket USD 200,000 as the winning purse
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa made history as the first Indian player to win the Grand Chess Tour title, beating Fabiano Caruana of the United States in the grand finale in St. Louis.
Praggnanandhaa made a remarkable turnaround on Thursday (August 27) after trailing Caruana at the start of the day.
The Indian eventually prevailed over Caruana 15-13 to win his maiden GCT title and pocket USD 200,000 as the winning purse.
What Praggnanandhaa said
The title win also guaranteed Praggnanandhaa a spot in the next year's Grand Chess Tour along with Caruana, and another American Wesley So, who defeated Vincent Keymer of Germany 18-12 to take the third place.
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"Honestly, I didn't think I had many chances today," Praggnanandhaa told 'Chess.com'.
"It's not every day that you can get one win from Fabi, but to get two, it was important in the rapid." 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.
Prevails in third game
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.
Earlier this year, Praggnanandhaa had become the first Indian to win the Norway Chess title, a campaign that featured two wins over world number one and tournament favourite Magnus Carlsen.
(With agency inputs)