Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa continued his formidable run of form by taking first place, and a $200,000 first prize, at the Grand Chess Tour Finals, held in St Louis in late August. Earlier in 2026, the 21-year-old Indian grandmaster won Norway Chess, and dominated the St Louis Rapid and Blitz, which he won with a round to spare. Just a few days later he was back in action at the Sinquefield Cup, also held in St Louis, where he tied for first place with Wesley So, only to miss out in the tiebreak. Those stellar results won him a place in the quadrangular Grand Chess Tour Finals, alongside Caruana, So and Keymer.

The matches were a mixture of classical (slow), rapid and blitz tiebreaks, with points weighted towards the slower time controls. In the semi-final, Keymer missed a big chance in the second classical game. In the diagram, 35…Nxa3+ 36 Kb2 Rxc2+ 37 Kxa3 is murky, but 35…Ne3! keeps control, e.g. 36 Rc1 Qc6 37 c4 Rhg8 with a huge advantage.

R. Praggnanandhaa-Vincent Keymer

Grand Chess Tour Finals, Semi-final Classical

Instead, Keymer was tempted by 35…Nd2+ 36 Rxd2 Rxd2 37 Kc1 and all of a sudden, the rook is trapped! Keymer kept the game alive with Rxh5 38 Rxh5 Rf2 39 Qxf2 Qxh5 But the passed pawn on f6 confers a huge edge, and Praggnanandhaa won comfortably. 40 Nc5 b6 41 Nxa6+ Kc8 42 Qf1 d3 43 Qxd3 Qg5+ 44 Kb2 Qxf6 45 Nb4 Nd7 46 Qd5 Nc5 47 Nc6 Qh4 48 a4 Nxe4 49 a5 Nc5 50 b4 Qe4 51 Ne7+ Kb8 52 Qd8+ Kb7 53 Qc8+ Ka7 54 Qxc7+ Ka8 55 Qd8+ Black resigns

Perhaps demoralised by missing that chance, Keymer collapsed in the rapid games which followed (see below). Praggnanandhaa faced Caruana in the final, and recovered from a loss in the classical portion by winning both of the rapid games and tying the blitz, for a narrow match victory, and first place in the 2026 Grand Chess Tour.

V. Keymer-R. Praggnanandhaa

Grand Chess Tour Finals, Semi-final Rapid

1 Nf3 c5 2 e4 Nc6 3 Bb5 g6 4 O-O Bg7 5 Bxc6 bxc6 6 Re1 Rb8 7 Nc3 e5 8 d3 d6 9 b3 Nf6 10 Be3 O-O 11 h3 Nh5 White struggles for a plan, while f7-f5 will soon stoke a kingside initiative. 12 Qd2 f5 13 Bh6 Rb7 14 Bxg7 Rxg7 15 Qg5 Qe8 16 Nd2? The sheepish 16 Qd2 was the lesser evil. f4! Cutting off the queen’s escape. 17 Nc4

h6! 18 Qxh6 18 Qh4 g5 is no better Qe7 White’s position is already hopeless, as there is no way to extricate the Qh6. 19 Kh2 Qf6 20 Nxd6 Rh7 21 Qxf8+ Qxf8 22 Nxc8 Qxc8 23 f3 g5 24 Kg1 Qd8 25 Ne2 Ng3 26 Kf2 c4 27 Nxg3 Qd4+ White resigns