American Wesley So won the Sinquefield Cup with a thrilling three-way playoff triumph, and Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured his place in the Grand Chess Tour final after finishing runner-up. In the ninth and last round, So defeated Uzbek Abdusattorov to tie Praggnanandhaa and fellow countryman Fabiano Caruana on 5.5 points at the top.
He then advanced to the playoffs, where he scored 1.5 of a possible 2 points. Caruana had to struggle with finishing in third place after the tiebreaker, when he scored a single draw versus So, while Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Levon Aronian of the United States and defeated him in the tiebreak to finish second on one point.
Levon Aronian, Caruana, and Praggnanandhaa all advanced to the GCT grand finals, with Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave already holding the record for most points on the Grand Chess Tour.
Aronian finished solo fourth in the Classical section with five points from his nine games, while Caruana and Praggnanandhaa tied for first place with 5.5 points each.
With 4.5 points apiece, Vachier-Lagrave, Samuel Sevian of the United States, and Duda Jan-Kryzsztof of Poland tied for fifth place, one half point ahead of world champion D Gukesh, who had a poor event.
Abdusattorov finished last with 2.5 points overall, while France's Alireza Firouzja finished ninth with 3.5 points.
Praggnanandhaa's quick victory over Caruana in the opening tiebreak match sparked hopes of winning the cup.
But the American was astute enough to hold Caruana in the final game to win the event after the Indian fell to So in the second round.
Praggnanandhaa secured his spot in the top three earlier in the day with an easy draw against Aronian.
Aronian probably played a very conservative game with white pieces since he was more concerned about getting to the grand finale. There were a lot of early exchanges in the Four Knights opening, and soon after, the Bishops' endgame was drawn.
Caruana did not present many challenges with his white pieces, so Gukesh drew with him from an Italian opening. By the time peace was achieved, the players had reached a theoretically drawn rook and pawns endgame.
Starting on September 3, the Caravan will relocate to Uzbekistan, the site of the Grand Swiss.
Most of the best players in the world will compete in the strongest-ever Swiss tournament in hopes of placing in the top two rankings, which will secure a place in the upcoming Candidates tournament, which will determine Gukesh's opponent in the upcoming world championship match.
As of right now, Praggnanandhaa is the only Indian to qualify for the Candidates.
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