Latest news with #AlirezaFirouzja
Mint
16-05-2025
- Sport
- Mint
Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa wins maiden Grand Chess Tour event in Romania, Gukesh finishes 6th
May 16, 2025, ended on a historic note for Indian sports fans. Javelin star Neeraj Chopra breached the 90-metre mark for the first time in his career. The Indian won a silver medal in the Diamond League in Doha, Qatar's capital. History was also made around the same time in Bucharest, some 4200 kilometres away from Doha. Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won the Chess Classic Romania 2025, his first Grand Chess Tour victory. The main event ended in a three-way tie. Praggnanandhaa, French Grandmasters Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave—all three of them finished on 5.5 points after 10 rounds. Tie-break 1: The game between Alireza Firouzja and Praggnanandhaa ended in a draw. Both players were awarded 0.5 points. Tie-break 2: The game between the two French Grandmasters ended in a draw. Both players were awarded 0.5 points. Tie-break 3: Praggnanandhaa defeated Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in just 16 seconds and got 1 point to win the tournament. Praggnanandhaa earned $77,667 (roughly Rs. 66, 48, 345) as prize money and was awarded 10 Grand Chess Tour (GCT) points. The 19-year-old youngster from Chennai expressed his feelings on Social media. Top-seeded Gukesh, the current World Chess champion could only finish 6th in the event. Gukesh earned $17,125 (roughly Rs. 14, 65, 911) and got 3.5 GCT points. Praggnanandhaa finished third in the 'Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland' event held in Warsaw last month. The next event 'SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia' will happen in Zagreb, the capital of Croatia.
News18
16-05-2025
- Sport
- News18
Superbet Classic: R Praggnanandhaa Shares Top Spot Following Draw With Levon Aronian
Published By : PTI Last Updated: The winner will be decided via tiebreaks after three players, Praggnanandhaa, Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished the ninth and final round with 5.5 points apiece. Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa played out a draw with Levon Aronian of the United States to finish in a three-way tie for first place at the Superbet Classic, the opening event of the Grand Chess Tour. With three players — Praggnanandhaa, Alireza Firouzja and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave — ending the ninth and final round with 5.5 points apiece, the winner will be decided via tiebreaks. In the tiebreaker, the players will play two mini games of 5 minutes each plus a two second increment and if the tie persists the winner will be decided through an Armageddon game. The Superbet Classic carries a total prize purse of USD 350,000. Praggnnanadhaa did not take many chances with his pieces against Aronian who came up with an opening surprise in the form of French defense. Employing a quite set-up, Praggnanandhaa exchanged the Queens early and the result of the game thereafter was not in any doubts as the pieces changed hands at regular intervals. The players finally arrived at an opposite coloured Bishops endgame where the draw was agreed to after 43 moves. Vachier-Lagrave defeated off-form Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland with white pieces going for complications in a Ruy Lopez game. Duda did well to maintain the balance but a huge positional blunder on move 34 cost him dearly as his king came under massive threats by white's heavy pieces. Vachier-Lagrave won quite easily thereafter. Firouzja defeated Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania in a keenly contested game where the Romanian seemed to have an upper hand in the middle game. Firouzja, a master of tactics spotted a whole in white's calculation after sacrificing an exchange and turned the tables in 54 moves. In other matches of the day, D Gukesh played out a draw with Fabiano Caruana of United States while American Wesley So got the same result against Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan. In the final rankings, Caruana finished fourth on 5 points, a half point ahead of Abdusattorov on 4.5. Gukesh after a lot of ups and downs in the event, ended tied fifth on 4 points with Wesley, Aronian and Bogdan-Daniel. Duda with 3 points, had to be content with the last place. Results: R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 5.5) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 4); Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou, 4) lost to Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5.5); Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5.5) beat Jan Krzysztof (Pol, 3); Wesley So (4) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 4.5); D Gukesh (Ind, 4) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 5).
The Guardian
16-05-2025
- Sport
- The Guardian
Chess: top-seeded world champion Gukesh Dommaraju struggles at Bucharest
India's world champion, Gukesh Dommaraju, hoped for a comeback at Bucharest this week after his dismal Freestyle performances in North Germany and Paris in the spring. Instead, the top seeded 18-year-old was defeated by France's pair of Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, in 31 moves, and Alireza Firouzja, in 69 moves, before scoring a 44-move win, against USA's Levon Aronian, in Thursday's eighth and penultimate round. Gukesh has dropped from third to fifth in the Fide world rankings, and is currently tied seventh in the 10-man field in Romania with one win, five draws, and two defeats. One round earlier, he was tied last. Only Friday's ninth and final round, which can be watched (2pm BST start) here, remains. The Bucharest event is part of the European leg of the Grand Slam sponsored by the St Louis billionaire Rex Sinquefield, which also includes rapid and blitz events in Poland and Croatia, the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, and a Tour Final at Sao Paulo, Brazil. Prize money at Bucharest totals $350,000, with $100,000 for the winner. Garry Kasparov, the 13th world champion, made a ceremonial first move, and spoke fondly of the former days when grandmasters would debate their analysis in chess magazines, an aspect of the game that computers have killed off by showing the correct answer immediately. He added: 'There's no free lunch. We lost some beauty of the game and analysis, but in exchange we got a very nice compensation. We now know the correct evaluation of the position.' Praggnanandhaa Raameshbabu leads the Bucharest field by half a point with 5/8. Gukesh's fellow Indian is poised for his second major success of the year following his victory at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee in January. The main interest of Vachier-Lagrave v Gukesh in round four was that the Frenchman advanced his h2 pawn all the way up to h6 at moves 12-14. This manoeuvre is a computer era speciality, which in older games was designed to weaken the black king's defences by h5xg6. Tests with the program AlphaZero showed that advancing the pawn to h6 can also pose long-term endgame threats to the black position, for example if a white piece can attack Black's h7 pawn. Vachier-Lagrave v Gukesh was initially level, but Vachier-Lagrave believed that he won the opening battle after 8 Be3. Gukesh then overpressed with 12…f5? allowing White's pawn to advance to h6. White's 19 Rh4! was strong, preventing Black's f4, while after 22…c5? (better Rab8) Black is lost, and his position collapsed quickly. At the end if 31…Rae7 32 Rxa5 White just mops up Black's pawns. Gukesh had a further escape in round five, when he sacrificed unsoundly against Jan-Krzysztof Duda but escaped with a draw by perpetual check when the Pole put his king on the wrong square. The world champion's poor run continued in round six, when Firouzja outplayed him in the middle game but wobbled in the endgame. His missed simple win, instead of 30 Qxg4? was 30 Re4! when Qxh4 31 Nf5+ keeps White a pawn up, while Black's pawn formation remains shattered. After that, Gukesh should have drawn, but in the position after White's move 53 with WK g4, WR b4, and WP g4 v BK h6, BB f6, BP f7 the young Indian, who was not in any clock trouble, took just four seconds to play the blunder 53…Bg5?? at the moment when any of Bc3, Be5 or Ba1 gives a cast-iron fortress draw. Black simply keeps his Kh6 and Pf6 where they are, and moves his bishop up and down the long diagonal, while White can do nothing. Sign up to The Recap The best of our sports journalism from the past seven days and a heads-up on the weekend's action after newsletter promotion In round seven Gukesh finally scored a full point when loose play by Aronian left the American with a hopeless rook and pawn ending. Gukesh's indifferent form will be of concern in India, before the world champion's forthcoming clash with Magnus Carlsen, who is still ranked world No 1, at Stavanger starting on 25 May. Meanwhile, Carlsen and his wife, Ella Victoria, are expecting their first child. Perhaps chess fans expect too much from world champions. Of 18 holders of the title, only five – Emanuel Lasker, Alexander Alekhine, Anatoly Karpov, Kasparov, and Carlsen – clearly improved their play during their reign. For several others, the crown was clearly a burden. As matters stand, Gukesh will be perceived by his rivals as a beatable target, like his predecessor, Ding Liren. Vlastimil Hort, one of the leading grandmasters of the 1970s and 1980s, died on 12 May aged 81. Hort had a memorable 1977 Candidates match against Boris Spassky when, with the scores tied at 6-6. Spassky was hospitalised with appendicitis. He needed a four-game timeout but the regulations only provided for three, so Hort donated one of his own timeouts. 3972: 1 g6! fxg6 2 Rxh5! gxh5 3 Rg1+ Ng6 4 Rxg6+ Kg8 5 Rh6+ Kg8 6 Rh8 mate. Other defences for Black also lose quickly.
