Praggnanandhaa wins his first tournament on the Grand Chess Tour, clinches Superbet Classic after a tough tiebreak

Chess Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa added another feather to his hat after defeating French counterpart Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to win his first-ever tournament on the Grand Chess Tour. He was crowned champion of the Superbet Classic in Budapest.

Pragnanadhaa was assured of a tie for the first place after his draw against Armenian-American GM Levon Aronianin in the final round in the final round.

Maxime and Alireza Firouzja also won to match Praggnanandhaa on 5.5 points, leading to a tiebreaker between the three. The matches comprised of five minutes and two a two-second increment after every move.


Pragnanandhaa started with black pieces in the first game and worked hard a slightly difficult position against Firouzja to fight out a draw. In the second game Firouzja drew with Vachier-Lagrave.

In the last game of the event, Praggnanandhaa breached through the defences of Vachier-Lagrave to 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 French Grandmaster.

This was a good comeback for Praggnanandhaa after he had lost all his games in the playoffs last year.

"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 for the win. The Indian won a cash award of $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