Zagreb: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa won three matches in a row on the final day to tie for first place with Firouzja Alireza of France on 12 points as the rapid section of the Croatian leg of the Grand Chess Tour ended here.
Having fallen a little behind after the second day, Praggnanandhaa reserved his best for the last three rounds and defeated Ivan Saric of Croatia, Deac Bogdan-Daniel of Romania and Anish Giri of the Netherlands to finally catch up with Alireza.
The other Frenchman Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan remained within striking distance of the two leaders with a fine finish in the rapid section to reach 11 points, while world champion D Gukesh of India and Vincent Keymer of Germany are right on their toes with 10 points each.
With 18 rounds in the blitz section still to be played, Giri is on eight points and is a full point ahead of Deac and Jorden van Foreest of the Netherlands, while Saric stands last with just two points in his bag.
For Praggnanandhaa, things started moving right after the opening against Saric, who has been struggling in the event. The Caro Kann defence gave the Indian an active position right from the beginning, and though it took a long time to convert, Praggnanandhaa was always in command.
In the second game, Praggnanandhaa crashed through the defences of Deac out of a Petroff defence, and by move 15, the writing was already on the wall. The Romanian lost a piece soon and never recovered.
In the final game of the day, Praggnanandhaa was on fire against generally dependable Anish Giri as he won a pawn out of a Catalan opening and then ended the game efficiently with fine tactical manoeuvres. The game ended in a mere 34 moves.
For Gukesh, this turned out to be a contrasting day compared to Praggnanandhaa as the youngest-ever world champion could only draw all three games to fall behind a little. Abdusattorov, Keymer and Alireza all split points with Gukesh.
Standings after Round 9 Rapid 1-2 Firouzja Alireza (Fra), R Praggnanandhaa (Ind) 12 each; 3-4 Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra), Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb) 11 each; 5-6 D Gukesh (Ind), Vincent Keymer (Ger) 10 each; 7 Anish Giri (Ned, 8); 8-9. Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rou), Jorden van Foreest (Ned) 7 each; 10. Ivan Saric (Cro, 2).
