Not every success story ends in victory. R Praggnanandhaa came within a handshaking distance of his fourth title of the year before losing in a tie-breaker to finish joint-second in the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis in USA. The outcome confirmed his place in the four-player final round of the Global Chess Tour to be played in Sao Paulo next month.
It was a day when almost everything went to plan for the 20-year-old, with a little help from D Gukesh. Pragg realised early into his ninth and final round game against Armenian Levon Aronian that a win was difficult. He settled for a quick draw to finish with 5.5 points. He said later that he did that because the draw guaranteed him a place in the last four of the GCT.
The world No. 4 said something else which made heads turn. “I believe in Gukesh,” he said, according to the live commentary on ChessBase India. His draw meant Gukesh had to at least hold Fabiano Caruana to prevent him from emerging the winner. Despite having a bad outing (Gukesh finished eighth in the 10-player field with four points), the world champion denied the world No. 3 any whiff of a win in a long game.
With Caruana and Pragg finishing on 5.5 points each, a tie-breaker had to take place. Then came the decisive twist to the tale. Chasing the leaders throughout the tournament, Wesley So of the US defeated Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan in a dramatically long game to join Caruana and Pragg on 5.5 points. So instead of two, it became a three-way tie.
He started the tie-breaker played in the blitz format by edging out Caruana in the first game. The title was in sight. But then, So proved stronger in the second game. In fact, Pragg is the lowest-rated of the three in this format. While So is world No. 4 and Caruana 10, the Indian is 24th. Caruana couldn’t beat So in the last game which made the latter the champion.
It was still a satisfying outing for Pragg, who has been the most consistent player at the elite level this year. Other than winning three titles, he finished second in two and fourth in one. He was undefeated in St Louis and mesmerised onlookers with his trickeries at times. He was richer by $67,667 (Rs 59.31 lakh approx) and has a chance to earn more in Brazil next month.
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