IMAGE: R Praggnanandhaa played out an easy draw with Levon Aronian to seal his place amongst the top three at the Sinquefield Cup. Photograph: Lennart Ootes/FIDE
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa sealed his spot in the Grand Chess Tour finale after finishing runner-up at the Sinquefield Cup, where American Wesley So clinched the title with a dramatic three-way play-off victory in St Louis, United States.
So defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in the ninth and final round to tie with Praggnanandhaa and compatriot Fabiano Caruana on 5.5 points at the top. He then went on to the play-off scoring 1.5 points out of a possible two.
Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Levon Aronian of United States and defeated Caruana in the tiebreak to finish second on one point while the latter had to be contend with the third place finish after the tiebreaker wherein he scored a lone draw against So.
With Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France already the highest point scorer in the Grand Chess Tour, Levon Aronian also qualified for the GCT grand finale along with Caruana and Pragganandhaa.
In the Classical section, So Caruana and Praggnanandhaa ended on 5.5 points apiece tying for the top spot while Aronian finished solo fourth on 5 points from his nine games.
Vachier-Lagrave, Samuel Sevian of United States and Duda Jan-Kryzsztof of Poland tied for the fifth spot on 4.5 points apiece a half point clear of world champion D Gukesh who did not have a great event.
Alireza Firouzja of France finished ninth on 3.5 points while Abdusattorov ended last with 2.5 points in all.
Praggnanandhaa raised visions of
winning the cup with a swift victory over Caruana in the first tiebreak game.
However, the Indian lost to So in the second round and the American was smart enough to hold Caruana in the final game to win the tournament.
Earlier in the day, Praggnanandhaa played out an easy draw with Aronian to seal his place amongst the top three.
Aronian was probably more focused on making it to the grand finale and played out a very safe game with white pieces. The Four Knights opening saw heaps of exchanges taking place early and it was a drawn Bishops endgame on board very soon.
Gukesh drew with Caruana out of an Italian opening wherein Caruana did not pose much problems with his white pieces. The players reached a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame when peace was signed.
The Caravan will next move to Uzbekistan where the Grand Swiss will take place from September 3.
The strongest-ever swiss tournament will see most of the top players in the world competing to finish in the top two ranking that guarantees a spot in the next Candidates tournament which will decide the challenger for Gukesh in the next world championship match.
Praggnanandhaa is the only Indian who has qualified for the Candidates so far.
Results — Final round: Levon Aronian (Usa, 5) drew with R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5); Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 5.5) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 4); Wesley So (Usa, 5.5) beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 2.5); Duda (Jan-Kryzsztof (Pol, 4.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 3.5) drew with Samuel Sevian (Usa, 4.5).
Tiebreaker1: Praggnanadhaa beat Caruana
Tiebreaker 2: Wesley beat Praggnanandhaa
Tiebreaker 3: Wesley drew with Caruana.
