 "R Praggnanandhaa is the only Indian chess Grandmaster to qualify for Grand Chess Tour Finals 2025. Image: Grand Chess Tour")
Indian chess Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa endured a mixed day on Wednesday, suffering a heartbreak in the playoffs of the Sinquefield Cup 2025 at the Saint Louis Chess Club, but also securing his spot in the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) Finals 2025 in Brazil. After losing to eventual winner Wesley So in a three-way playoff, Praggnanandhaa ended the Sinquefield Cup 2025 in second position.
As a result of his strong finish in the American tournament, Praggnanandhaa climbed to the fourth spot in the Grand Chess Tour 2025 standings and qualified for the Finals, which will take place in São Paulo from 27 September to 3 October. Besides the Indian chess player, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Fabiano Caruana and Levon Aronian also qualified for the GCT Finals.
Praggnanandhaa loses in Sinquefield Cup playoffs, but reaches GCT Finals
Going into the final round of the Sinquefield Cup 2025 on Wednesday, Caruana and Praggnanandhaa were in the joint-lead , but both players failed to win their respective matches, while second-placed Wesley beat Nodirbek Abdusattorov to join them at the top of the standings with 10 points each.
Caruana drew against world champion D Gukesh, while Praggnanandhaa was held by Aronian in Round 9.
In the three-way playoff, Praggnanandhaa defeated Caruana but lost to Wesley, who drew against the fellow American Fabiano and clinched the tournament for the first time since 2016.
“It’s something good and I needed a good result here after my Zagreb performance,” Praggnanandhaa said while reacting to qualifying for the GCT Finals. “I could have made it much easier if I had played much better on the last day of Zagreb.”
Gukesh endures poor run at Sinquefield Cup
While Praggnanandhaa missed out on the trophy by a whisker, Gukesh had a horrible tournament, finishing eighth in the Sinquefield Cup 2025 standings with just three points.
He lost to Praggnanandhaa in Round 1 and Wesley in Round 7. Gukesh’s only win came against an out-of-form Nodirbek as he also secured six draws.