IMAGE: R Praggnanandhaa poses with the trophy after winning the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest, Romania, on Friday. Photograph: rpraggnachess/X
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France to win his first tournament on the Grand Chess Tour by showcasing his supremacy in the Superbet Classic in Bucharest on Friday.
The 19-year-old Indian Grandmaster, after drawing with the Armenian-American GM Levon Aronianin in the final round, was assured of a tie for first place.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja also won to match Praggnanandhaa on 5.5 points.
With three players – Praggnanandhaa, Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave – finishing the ninth and final round with 5.5 points each, the winner was decided over the tie-breaker between the three, with five minutes and a two-second increment after every move.
Praggnanandhaa expressed his joy on social media, saying, “Unbelievable feeling! Just won the #SuperbetChessClassic in Bucharest, Romania! Huge thanks to my team and supporters for their unwavering encouragement!
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, 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, won a cash award of US $77,667 (around Rs 66 lakh) for his efforts, 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 tie-break certainly helps,” Praggnanandhaa said, at the prize-distribution ceremony.
After his relatively early draw with Aronian in the Classical game, the Indian rested in his room for a few hours.
He also thanked his second for the tournament, GM Vaibhav Suri, and his permanent trainer Grandmaster R B Ramesh.
World Chess champion Gukesh Dommaraju could only finish sixth. Gukesh earned $17,125 and got 3.5 GCT points.
Last year, Pragg tied for first place in Bucharest, but it was Fabiano Caruana who finished on top spot in the play-offs. This time, the Chennai chess prodigy emerged victorious, just over three months after winning the Tata Steel Masters, the traditional event held in Wijk aan Zee, often referred to as the Wimbledon of chess.
Pragg, who has already participated in a Candidates tournament, is one of three Indian under-21 players in the world top 10, alongside Arjun Erigaisi and, of course, World champion Gukesh.
The newly-crowned champion not only collected 10 GCT points, the same as Vachier-Lagrave and Firouzja, but also secured a $10,000 bonus for winning the play-off.
After two GCT events, Vachier-Lagrave leads the overall standings, with Pragg trailing by just two points in second place.
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).
Tie-break: Praggnanandhaa drew with Firouzja; Firouzja drew with Vachier-Lagrave; Praggnanandhaa beat Vachier-Lagrave.
