India’s world No 12, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, received the Grand Chess Tour finals in St Louis on Thursday night time when he defeated the US’s world No 2, Fabiano Caruana, in a mixture of classical, speedy and blitz video games by 15-13. It was the 21-year-old’s second main success of the summer time following Norway Chess at Oslo and it earned him a file $200,000 first prize, up from $150,000 in 2025.
Earlier, Wesley So, the US world No 6, received the distinguished Sinquefield Cup and greater than $100,000 for the second yr in succession, regardless of a run of 9 largely colourless attracts.
The previous Filipino, 32, selected his strategy in order to maximise his probabilities of one other enormous payday within the Tour finals. He mentioned: “I’m not pleased with the early attracts, however they have been a part of a much bigger technique, and it labored.” Nevertheless, there was a sting within the tail as So completed third of 4 within the Tour finals.
Praggnanandhaa’s 27-move win over France’s Maxime Vachier-Lagrave was the quickest victory of the Sinquefield Cup, with its refined 27…Bb6! forcing resignation.
Within the Tour semi-finals Praggnanandhaa defeated Germany’s Vincent Keymer much more simply than the 19-9 rating suggests, whereas Caruana beat So 18-12, grinding him to defeat by superior positional expertise
The 2-day closing, Caruana v Praggnanandhaa, was a conflict of generations, age 34 v age 21. Caruana received the first classical game, exploiting a blunder at transfer 28, however Praggnanandhaa managed the second till he erred in a bishops of reverse colors ending, permitting Caruana to outlive in a marathon 95 strikes.
Classical video games counted six factors as in opposition to 4 for speedy and two for blitz, however the younger Indian proved sooner and extra creative within the faster codecs. He won both rapid games to take an 11-9 total lead, then held on in blitz for a 15-13 successful margin.
So beat Keymer 16-12 within the third-place match.
The Sinquefield Cup, launched by Rex Sinquefield in 2013, has included some memorable moments. Caruana’s 7/7 begin in 2014 and his world file match efficiency score of 3098 was absolutely the spotlight, however there was additionally a controversial triple tie in 2018, Ding Liren’s victory for China in 2019, by which he beat the then world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in a velocity tie-break, and the infamous 2022 occasion with Carlsen v Hans Niemann and its dishonest allegations.
The $250,000 Cairns Cup for elite girls is the feminine equal of the Sinquefield Cup and is known as after Sinquefield’s spouse Dr Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield. It was received by China’s Tan Zhongyi, who had beforehand triumphed in 2024 and regarded a reworked participant from her heavy 6.5-2.5 defeat by Ju Wenjun within the 2025 world girls’s championship match.
Alice Lee, who completed second within the Cairns Cup with 6/9, half some extent behind the winner, is the rising star of US girls’s chess. The 16-year-old achieved her first GM norm at open stage, the fifth youngest feminine in chess historical past to take action after Kateryna Lagno, Hou Yifan, Judit Polgar, and Humpy Koneru. Solely 44 girls have ever earned the total grandmaster title, whereas 300-400 have gained the separate girls’s grandmaster award, which is 200 score factors decrease.
The St Louis-organised Grand Chess Tour, with extra occasions in Poland, Croatia and Romania, will quickly be instantly challenged by the brand new Fide-approved Whole World Championship, additionally together with classical, speedy and blitz occasions, which can begin with a pilot in Budapest from 10-21 November 2026, adopted by a full Tour in 2027.
Apart from Carlsen, the confirmed entries to date for Budapest, which can characteristic 24 gamers, embrace Caruana, So, Praggnanandhaa, Niemann, and Ian Nepomniachtchi.
The Fide occasion could have the benefits of Carlsen’s participation and its official World Championship title, however St Louis will profit from the town’s popularity and from Sinquefield’s iconic standing as a worldwide chess sponsor.
In the meantime, the Tech Mahindra International Chess League, the six-team franchise competitors based mostly on cricket’s Indian Premier League, which was staged in London in 2024, might be again in India at Bengaluru from 3-13 September, ending simply two days earlier than the 400-team Open and Ladies’s Olympiads start in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Carlsen is introduced as a participant within the International League, however not within the Olympiad, a element which can go down badly in Norway, whose crew with out its talisman is seeded a lowly twenty first.
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Henry Adams, an Oxford PPE pupil, received final week’s Kingston Invitation unbeaten with 7.5/9, forward of a GM and three IMs for a breakthrough in his chess profession. Earlier, he was greatest recognized for his consequence at Cambridge 2023 the place, rated a modest Fide 1968, he drew within the first spherical with GM Michael Adams, at the moment an enormous 2757. Nevertheless, later in that very same match, Henry additionally drew together with his different namesake George Adams, rated a modest 1494…
Friday is the precise ninetieth anniversary of the ultimate spherical of Nottingham 1936, the strongest chess match ever performed on English soil, by which 5 previous, current and future world champions took half.
It was far stronger than the primary worldwide match at London 1851, which had its personal Staunton Centenary in 1951, and its venue in Nottingham College went on to stage the British Championships of 1946 and 1954.
My suggestion is that the English Chess Federation ought to begin planning for a Nottingham Centenary Match in 2036. Such a proposal can be higher made within the early 2030s, however anyone else would wish to make it then.
I confess to a private curiosity: In my way back chess youth I performed, met, or had correspondence with 12 of the 15 gamers at Nottingham 1936, lacking out on solely Emanuel Lasker, José Capablanca and Alexander Alekhine. A significant worldwide centenary match in Nottingham 2036 can be becoming.
The European Senior Staff championships started on Thursday in Hersonissos, Crete. England’s 50+ first crew are prime seeded, with GMs Stuart Conquest, John Emms, Danny Gormally, Mark Hebden and IM Graeme Buckley, whereas England’s 65+ first crew, led by GMs John Nunn and Tony Kosten supported by a trio of sturdy IMs, are the No 2 seeds to Slovenia.
England are already assured of 1 gold medal, since England 50+ girls, seeded a really respectable seventh total and led by IM Susan Lalic and WIM Natasha Regan, are the one entrants of their class.
4039: 1…Nb4+! 2 Qxd8 Nc4+ 3 Ke1 Nc2 mate. Not 1…Nc4+? 2 Kc2 Qe2+?? 3 Qxe2.
