Grand Chess Tour: Praggnanandhaa finishes last, Firouzja wins Saint Louis leg

Indian Grandmaster R. Praggnanadhaa produced an improved effort in the blitz section but it did not help him avoid a last place finish in the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament.

On the last day of the event, Praggnanadhaa ended up with eight points in blitz, an improvement from the four points he logged in Rapid category earlier.

He finished the Grand Chess Tour event with a total of 12 points, as Alireza Firouzja of France emerged as the winner tallying 23 points in all — 11 points in rapid and 12 points in the blitz.

It was a dominating performance from Firouzja who won the event with two rounds to spare.

After a neat show in rapid, the Iranian, who now plays for France, was merciless in the blitz section to amass 12 points out of 18 games. The victory fetched him $40,000 out of a total prize pool of $1,75,000.

The result also gave Firouzja the leader spot in the Grand Chess Tour ranking ahead of Fabiano Caruana of United States who was a pale shadow of himself after winning the last two events.

Firouzja, who has 30.58 points, is well ahead of Caruana who has 26.75 points.

Praggnanandhaa who started the event on third spot in tour ranking slipped to fifth on 17.25 points and needs a miracle for a podium finish in the last event – the Sinquefield Cup – that starts in just two days’ time.

The Indian will be joined by World Championship challenger D. Gukesh in that event.