Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to win his first-ever tournament on the Grand Chess Tour by showcasing his supremacy in the the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, Romania. The Indian, after drawing with the Armenian-American GM Levon Aronianin in the final round, was assured of a tie for the first place. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja also won to match Praggnanandhaa on 5.5 points. This led to a tiebreaker between the three, with five minutes and a two-second increment after every move.
In the first game with black pieces, Praggnanandhaa had to work hard in a slightly difficult position against Firouzja but the end result was a draw. In the second game Firouzja drew with Vachier-Lagrave.
In the last game of the event, Praggnanandhaa crashed through the defences of Vachier-Lagrave earn the top prize. The Indian scored 1.5 points in his blitz games, half a point more than Firouzja and one more than the other French Grandmaster.
It was a sweet comeback for Praggnanandhaa after last year’s debacle when he lost all his games in the play-offs.
“I didn’t do so well last time. I guess getting to rest a few hours before the tiebreak certainly helps,” Praggnanandhaa said at the prize-giving ceremony.
After his relatively early draw with Aronian in the Classical game, the Indian had rested in his room for a few hours.
Praggnanandhaa also thanked his second for the tournament, GM Vaibhav Suri, and his permanent trainer Grandmaster RB Ramesh on the occasion. The Indian won a cash award of USD 77,667 (around Rs 66 lakh) for his efforts.
Results (Round 9): R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 4); Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 4) lost to Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5.5) beat Jan Krzysztof (Pol, 3); Wesley So (4) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 4.5); D Gukesh (Ind, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5).
Tiebreak result: Praggnanandhaa drew with Firouzja; Firouzja drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Praggnanandhaa beat Vachier-Lagrave.
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