Grand Chess tour: Praggnanandhaa ends tied third, Gukesh sixth; Alireza wins

Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa bounced back with a decent effort on the final day to finish tied third in the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour here on Monday. France’s Firouzja Alireza bagged the top honours with 23.5 points. Praggnanandhaa shared the third spot with another Frenchman, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, logging 21.5 points.

The Indian star began the final day with a loss against Vincent Keymer but then did well to score 6 points out of the last eight games. His other loss came against compatriot D Gukesh but Praggnanandhaa’s main victim was Alireza. After a splendid start in the blitz on the opening day, when he scored 8 points out of a possible nine, Alireza had a rather forgettable final day and could only make 5 points, allowing Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattorov to catch up with him in the overall standings on 23.5 points.

It led to a tie-break finale wherein the first two games ended in draws and after that, the Frenchman drew with Abdusattorov in the Armageddon to be crowned the champion.