Dominant Praggnanandhaa makes the winning moves at St. Louis Rapid and Blitz

Indian Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa clinched his maiden Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz title in emphatic fashion, sealing the championship with a round to spare here.

The 20-year-old finished with 23.5 points, comfortably ahead of Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan, the contender for the world championship title this year.

Not losing any games on the final day of the last rapid and blitz tournament in the Grand Chess Tour (GCT), Praggnanandhaa jumped to second spot in the GCT which almost guarantees him a place in the grand finale scheduled later this year.

The Indian will just have to keep up his form in the last tournament of the season, the Sinquefield Cup, which will be played under the Classical format from August 10 to 19.

After winning the rapid section with a marginal one-point lead against Sindarov, Praggnanandhaa lost only one game in the blitz and scored the requisite victories to end up with 11.5 points out of a possible 18.

Sindarov, who was trailing Praggnanandhaa by a full point after the rapid section, had to be content with the second spot on 22 points whereas Wesley So of the United States came third, scoring 20 points overall.

Praggnanandhaa jumped to second spot in the overall GCT rankings following his triumph and much would depend on how he performs in the Sinquefield Cup starting on the weekend.

The withdrawal of Alireza Firouzja of France from the GCT has impacted positively on the lone Indian on the tour. Firouzja cited scheduling issues ahead of the last two events and his entire points earned thus far were removed as per the pre-agreement.

Praggnanandhaa will have to watch out in the Classical event that starts on Sunday and if he ends up in top three, it will be another great result for the Indian who won the Norway Chess title ahead of Magnus Carlsen earlier this year.

“I am super happy with the result (winning the St Louis Rapid & Blitz) and overall about the game quality. This is the first major rapid and blitz victory, so I’m really happy about it,” said Praggnanandhaa on ‘X’ after the triumph in the elite 10-man field.

“I want to thank my whole team and family for their amazing support. Next I’ll play in the Sinquefield Cup, which will start in three days. So, there is not much time to rest and it’s also the event before the GCT final. It’s going to be really exciting,” the young Grandmaster added.

Final standing: 1. R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 23.5); 2. Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 22); 3. Wesley So (USA, 20.5); 4: Levon Aronian (USA, 19) 5-7. Fabiano Caruana (USA); Lenier Dominguez Perez (USA), Jorden Van Foreest (Ned) 17 each; 8. Anish Giri (Ned, 15.5); 9. Vincent Keymer (Ger, 14.5) 10. Awonder Leong (USA, 14).