Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured a spot in the finals of the Grand Chess Tour’s final leg with a decisive 19-9 victory over Germany’s Vincent Keymer in St. Louis. This win highlights Praggnanandhaa’s strong performance in the tournament, showcasing his strategic prowess and competitive edge.
He defeated Keymer in back-to-back rapid encounters to nearly seal his spot in the finals taking an unassailable 17-3 lead before another victory in the first game of blitz took his points tally to 19. Caruana won 18-9 thanks to his skills in the blitz games, leaving nothing to chance. The GCT finale is a USD 450,000 tournament of which USD 200,000 is reserved for the winner and USD 125,000 goes to the losing finalist.
Having won the second Classical game, the Indian enjoyed a huge lead of six points coming into the final day on which games of shorter duration were played. As per rules, all the games have to be played and Keymer fought his way back by winning the last three blitz games even though the score-line was beyond repairs for him. Caruana is not known to be a power in the faster version of the game but on Monday he proved that he could prove that assessment wrong.
