Latest news with #SuperbetChessClassicRomania
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First Post
19-05-2025
- Sport
- First Post
Praggnanandhaa extends lead in FIDE Circuit Rankings, eyes World Championship clash with Gukesh
Indian GM R Praggnanandhaa extended his lead in the 2025 FIDE Circuit leaderboard by 28 points after winning the Superbet Chess Classic Romania. With strong performances this year, he is emerging as a top contender to qualify for the Candidates Tournament and eventually earn a chance to challenge reigning world champion D Gukesh. read more Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has strengthened his grip at the top of the 2025 FIDE Circuit leaderboard after his first-ever Grand Chess Tour title at Superbet Classic 2025_._ He is now leading with a solid 28-point margin over the rest of the players. The 19-year-old has emerged as a serious contender for next year's Candidates Tournament, thanks to his consistent performances this season. 🇮🇳 Praggnanandhaa extends his lead — setting the pace with a commanding margin! With his victory at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania, @rpraggnachess strengthens his position at the top of the #FIDECircuit rankings, now leading by a remarkable 28 points! 🏆♟️ — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) May 18, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD The FIDE Circuit is a points-based system introduced to decide one of the spots for the Candidates Tournament, which decides who will play in the World Chess Championship. Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh is the current world champion title holder after he defeated China's Ding Liren last year. The player who wins the Candidates in 2026 will challenge Gukesh. He has now collected valuable points from multiple tournaments throughout the season, building a strong case for a Candidates seat. The gap between him and the second-placed Ding Liren is 27.76 points. With several events still left in the year, Praggnanandhaa will be hoping to keep the momentum going. Praggnanandhaa's latest boost in the rankings came after he won the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2025. Although he finished the classical segment tied for first with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja, he kept his calm and beat Vachier-Lagrave in the final blitz tiebreaker game to seal the title. 'I have always dreamt of winning a GCT event, Winning the Superbet Chess Classic is indeed dream come true. I'm grateful to my coach, team, family, and supporters for their unwavering belief in me,' Praggnandhaa said after the win in Bucharest. I have always dreamt of winning a GCT event, Winning the #SuperbetChessClassic is indeed dream come true. I'm grateful to my coach, team, family, and supporters for their unwavering belief in me. — Praggnanandhaa (@rpraggnachess) May 17, 2025 STORY CONTINUES BELOW THIS AD This was his second big title of 2025 after winning the Tata Steel Chess tournament earlier in the year. His prize money for the Superbet win was $77,667 (approx. Rs 66.5 lakh). Earlier this month, Praggnanandhaa contested in the Poland leg of the Superbet Chess Classic, where he secured a strong third place.
Business Wire
19-05-2025
- Sport
- Business Wire
Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu Wins 2025 Superbet Chess Classic Romania in Thrilling Playoff
BUCHAREST, Romania & SAINT LOUIS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--In a thrilling playoff finale, Indian Grandmaster (GM) Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu emerged victorious as the 2025 Superbet Chess Classic Romania champion, capturing his first-ever Grand Chess Tour title during the second leg of the elite global series. Indian Grandmaster Wins Second Leg of the Grand Chess Tour; Takes Home $77,667 Prize Share 'It feels great to win a Grand Chess Tour event,' said Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. 'Last year, I came close but fell short in the tiebreak, so having a few hours to rest beforehand this time made a real difference—the games can get so intense. I've been working on playing more ambitiously, and I'm incredibly grateful to my support team for helping me get here.' GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja won in the final round to squeeze into a three-way tie for first. It was only after three playoff blitz games that Praggnanandhaa won the title. Firouzja and Vachier-Lagrave both won $67,667. 'Superbet Chess Classic 2025 was a truly exciting tournament from the very first round. The mix of experienced grandmasters and rising young talents created an atmosphere of fighting chess that lasted throughout the event. For the second year in a row, the final round brought a dramatic climax, with a tie-break among the top three players. This tournament once again proves our concept: bringing together established champions and emerging stars from around the world, many of whom are already part of the chess elite. We are proud to be part of such a remarkable event,' said Michael Khodarkovsky, GCT Executive Director. _________________________ 1 Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu won the event playoffs to secure first place. Expand 'Congratulations to Praggnanandhaa on his first Grand Chess Tour victory at the Superbet Chess Classic in Romania. Over nine days of intense competition, the tournament showcased the extraordinary talent of every participant. We are especially proud of Romanian player Bogdan Deac and his impressive performance. A heartfelt thank you to all the players for making this an unforgettable event, and to the chess fans around the world who followed each move with enthusiasm,' said Augusta Dragic, President of the Superbet Foundation. Next up, marking the midway point of the Grand Chess Tour, the SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia —sponsored by the Superbet Foundation —kicks off on July 1 in Zagreb. Following the same fast-paced format as the Superbet Rapid & Blitz Poland, this major tour stop will feature seven full-tour players and three wildcards, including World #1 GM Magnus Carlsen. Live commentary begins at 8:00 a.m. CDT with GMs Yasser Seirawan, Cristian Chirila, and Peter Svidler, IM Nazi Paikidze, and WGM Anastasia Karlovich on the Saint Louis Chess Club's Twitch & YouTube channels. The remaining 2025 tour schedule will include: SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz Croatia: June 30-July 7, 2025 in Zagreb, Croatia Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz: August 9-17, 2025 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA Sinquefield Cup: August 16-29, 2025 in Saint Louis, Missouri, USA GCT Finals: September 26-October 4, 2025 in São Paulo, Brazil GCT participants are currently competing for a recently increased prize purse of $1.6 million over the course of the 2025 season. The prize fund for each of the two classical tournaments will be $350,000 and $175,000 per event for rapid and blitz. Top four finishers of the regular season of five tournaments will compete for the purse of additional $350,000 in the knockout matches at the GCT finals. For more information, visit About the Grand Chess Tour The Grand Chess Tour is a circuit of international events, each demonstrating the highest level of organization for the world's best players. The legendary Garry Kasparov, one of the world's greatest ambassadors for chess, inspired the Grand Chess Tour and helped solidify the partnership between the organizers. For more information about the tour, please visit About the Superbet Foundation Since 2019, Superbet Foundation has made chess one of its core initiatives by organizing the first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest. The Foundation is committed to establishing a tradition of Grand Chess Tour tournaments within the Romanian and Polish chess communities. For more information, visit About the Saint Louis Chess Club The Saint Louis Chess Club is a non-profit, 501(c)(3) organization that is committed to making chess an important part of our community. In addition to providing a forum for the community to play tournaments and casual games, the club also offers chess improvement classes, beginner lessons and special lectures. Recognizing the cognitive and behavioral benefits of chess, the Saint Louis Chess Club is committed to supporting those chess programs that already exist in area schools while encouraging the development of new in-school and after-school programs. For more information, visit
Indian Express
13-05-2025
- Sport
- Indian Express
Why Vishy Anand prescribes a ‘take it easy policy' for teenage world beaters
Does the current generation of teenage prodigies that's in a tearing hurry to complete their hostile takeover of the chess world need to pause every once in a while to recharge their mental batteries? Do Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and others from their generation like Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov need to manage their work loads? If you ask Viswanathan Anand, the veritable godfather of Indian chess, they certainly must. Currently in Bucharest for the ongoing Superbet Chess Classic Romania event, Anand was asked by Cristian Chirila, who is a second to Fabiano Caruana, if the five-time world champion had any advice for the younger generation of stars about what they should focus on while training considering that the international calendar is pregnant with events. 'What should they focus on?' prodded Chirila, asking Anand about the upcoming generation in general without naming any names in particular. It's a question you reckon that a few members of India's golden generation of grandmasters would have asked themselves, if not Anand directly, at some point in the last few years since every tournament organiser — across formats — seemingly wants a piece of the three posterboys of India's golden generation. The proliferation of chess tournaments since the COVID-19 pandemic has happened at a remarkable pace. Just in 2025, events like the Checkmate: India vs USA and chess' entry into the Esports World Cup were announced. The Freestyle Chess organisers also added a four-event Grand Slam Tour. 'My approach would be to simplify my calendar a little bit,' began Anand. 'If you play all of them, then I think you don't get a minute to yourself. I would skip one or two events here or there and just experience everything else.' Anand's rationale behind this, he elaborated, was simple: 'The question is how to split up your time. That's why I say it's important to give up one or two events somewhere and give yourself a month or two off because you can easily get sucked into playing a lot and then you don't have a minute to yourself to think about anything.' Anand has a long track record of practising what he preaches. Back in the days when he frequented chess tournaments, he too would take a break from the sport whenever results started to sag. Anand's advice comes at a poignant time for India's troika of Gukesh, Pragg and Arjun. All three have experienced heady highs in the past few years, but also tasted dizzying dips in forms. Gukesh, for example, almost won the Tata Steel Chess event in Wijk aan Zee right after being crowned as the youngest world champion in chess history. It was a tournament that reaffirmed to the world that the hunger that had propelled the Chennai boy to become a world champion at 18 was still there. But since that event, he's experienced a slump at two freestyle tour events in Weissenhaus and Paris. And at the ongoing Superbet Chess Classic Romania event in Bucharest, he's currently winless after five games, drawing four and losing to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Arjun too experienced a dip at the season-opening event in Wijk aan Zee where he laboured to get a win in 11 games of the tournament before finally beating Nodirbek and Gukesh in the final two games of the event. Pragg seemed to have hit a ceiling in the first half of 2023, when he just could not break into the 2700 club. Then, while Gukesh and Arjun broke into 2800, Pragg, the OG teenage prodigy from this generation, was moored in the mid 2700s. All three have played a heavy amount of chess since the pandemic, sometimes with barely any gap between events. Gukesh, for example, ended the Tata Steel event in Wijk aan Zee (played in classical format) on February 2 and was then playing in the freestyle variant at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess tournament five days later. He then played at the freestyle event in Paris, and is now in Romania. Unlike other sports, mental fatigue is a very real threat in chess. A cricketer or a footballer won't spend hours in training sessions on the day of a game. Chess players do. They would probably feel uneasy walking into the playing hall if they did not prepare their battle plans for hours. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen's choice to play freestyle has also unburdened him from the tedious homework he needed to do otherwise: at freestyle, players only find out what the starting position is 10 minutes before their game, so there's no point preparing for hours leading into a game. In a special episode of 60 Minutes show on CBS News back in 2012, it was revealed that Magnus Carlsen was spending as much as 200 days a year on the road, playing at tournaments. This was separate from the chess prep he was doing at training camps back home as he prepared for an assault on the world champion's throne in the coming years. Those days were heavy with chess, playing six-hour-long games in the morning and then preparing for six more hours for the next day's opponent when back in the hotel room. While Anand pointed out that the Indian youngsters played a healthy mix of chess — never ignoring classical chess events for the more excitable rapid and blitz variants or the new and shiny Freestyle Chess variant — all four variants (classical, rapid, blitz and freestyle) demanded a completely different 'state of mind' from players. 'When playing rapid and blitz events, it's a slightly different state of mind because you're playing multiple games a day (at rapid and blitz tournaments it's common for players to play four or more games in a single day since games are much shorter than classical events). So in the faster events, you need to be able to play more openings just on the fly. But for classical you need to get quite deep into what you're going to do because it's only one game a day. So rest is important between events. It also allows you to think about what kind of situations you're going to face,' Anand added. India's young gunslingers on the battlefield of 64 squares are known to follow Anand's words like it's gospel. This just might be his most important advice to date.
