Picture Credit: X
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the Indian Grandmaster (GM), won the Superbet Chess Classic Romania 2025 on Friday, May 16, which was his first-ever title on the Grand Chess Tour (GCT). The 19-year-old had to go through a three-way tie-breaker for the first place against French GMs Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja, which allowed him to earn himself $77,667 and 10 valuable points on the GCT.
In the ninth and final round of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa drew in a comfortable manner against American GM Levon Aronian in the French Defense Tarrasch Variation, to get up to 5.5 points and ensure his place on the top of the standings. But, two of his closest challengers to the title, namely Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated Polish GM Jan-Krzysztof Duda while Alireza Firouzja got the better of Romanian GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac, to equal him on points.
The tie-breaker had a blitz single round-robin game, to decide the winner of the Superbet Chess Classic Romania among three of the players finishing on the top of the standings after nine rounds. After Alireza Firouzja drew his games against Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, it came to the last game between the latter two, which would decide whether there will be a decisive winner or the armageddon will follow.
I guess getting to rest a few hours before the tie-break certainly helps: Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa
After a pulsating battle, Praggnanandhaa defeated Vachier-Lagrave in 38 moves in the blitz tie-breaker game, to clinch a title for the first-time in his career at the GCT. He was quoted as saying, as per chess.com website, “I didn't do so well last time. I guess getting to rest a few hours before the tie-break certainly helps,” which is basically his admission that resting in the hotel room after drawing the game versus Levon Aronian helped his cause.
Viswanathan Anand sent out a post on his official X account to congratulate the teenage sensation for his recent title triumph, and wrote, “Congratulations to Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. Great show of nerves in the blitz . A very impressive performance”.
