Praggnanandhaa loses dramatic 3-way tiebreak at Sinquefield Cup but qualifies for Grand Chess Tour Finals

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Praggnanandhaa battles Wesley So in the Sinquefield Cup tiebreaks. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via Grand Chess Tour)

Indian teenage prodigy Praggnanandhaa lost a dramatic three-way tiebreak at the Sinquefield Cup early on Thursday but qualified for the four-player Grand Chess Tour Finals later this year. American grandmaster Wesley So won the Sinquefield Cup title in the tiebreaks, edging past Fabiano Caruana and Praggnanandhaa. Meanwhile, world champion Gukesh Dommaraju ended eighth in the 10-player event, winning just one game, drawing six and losing two at Sinquefield Cup.

Despite winning the title at Saint Louis, So did not make the cut for the four-player Grand Chess Tour Finals by half a point. Praggnanandhaa will be joined by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Caruana and Levon Aronian in Sao Paulo, Brazil for the season-finale from September 28 to October 3.

How the three-way tiebreak was forced

There was drama in the air in the final round of the event as Caruana and Praggnanandhaa held a half-point lead over the field. Wesley So needed a win over Nodirbek Abdusattorov while hoping Pragg (vs Levon Aronian) and Fabi (vs Gukesh) would end up drawing. And that’s just what happened as a three-way tiebreak.

INTERACTIVE: How Praggnanandhaa was held by Aronian

So jokes about sharing title

In the tiebreaks, the three players were asked to play a single round-robin with a blitz time control of 5+2. Wesley So later revealed that he had suggested — only half-seriously — that the three players slit the title, just like Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi had controversially done at the 2024 FIDE World Blitz Chess Championship or Carlsen, Aronian and Caruana did in the 2018 Sinquefield Cup.

Chess.com quoted So as saying that the three players were okay with it, but chief arbiter for the event, IA Chris Bird, refused to allow it.

Praggnanandhaa started the tiebreaks well, beating Caruana in 33 moves after the Aemrican resigned with mate-in-two moves being possible for the Indian prodigy.