Praggnanandhaa tops Saint Louis Rapid 2026

By admin August 5, 2026 0 comments

R Praggnanandhaa finished at the top at the conclusion of Rapid event at Grand Chess Tour Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz 2026.

Praggnanandhaa suffers his first loss of the event against Jorden van Foreest

R Praggnanandhaa maintained his sole lead by finishing at the very top of the Rapid event with a 12/18 score. The World Championship Challenger, Javokhir Sindarov is one point behind him at 11/18, followed by Wesley So at 10/18. Praggnanandhaa suffered his sole loss of the event against Jorden van Foreest in the final round. 18 rounds of Blitz will be played, nine today and nine tomorrow.

Round 7: Giri – Praggnanandhaa: 1-1

R Praggnanandhaa (2701) started the third day of Rapid with a draw against the FIDE Grand Swiss 2025 winner, Anish Giri (NED).

Anish Giri (NED) – R Praggnanandhaa: 0.5-0.5 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 7 in progress | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Round 8: Praggnanandhaa – Keymer: 2-0

R Praggnanandhaa (2701) and Vincent Keymer (GER, 2637) have played four rated Rapid games against each other. Praggnanandhaa won two, Keymer one and the remaining one ended in a draw.

Position after 20.e4

20.e4 was a thematic break dxe4 21.fxe4 Nxe4 22.Bxe4 Rxe4 23.Nxe4 Rxe4 24.d5 Black never recovered after sacrificing the exchange and went on to lose the game.

R Praggnanandhaa won his penultimate round in the Rapid against Vincent Keymer (GER) | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

Round 9: Jorden – Praggnanandhaa: 2-0

This was most probably the first rated Rapid game between Jorden van Foreest (NED, 2596) and R Praggnanandhaa (2701). Praggnanandhaa played ambitiously against Jorden and it did not work out.

Position after 15…Nf2?

15…Nf2? was a questionable decision as Black was lagging in the development department. 16.Na4 Qa5 17.Qxf2 Qxa4 18.a3 e5 19.Qc5 Qe4 20.Ng5 Qxh1 21.Bd3 Qxd1+ 22.Kxd1 Bg4+ 23.Kc1+- positions like these are in the wheelhouse of Jorden. He like sharp, unbalanced positions. If anything, it was more in White’s favor than Black. White won the game in five more moves. Thus, Praggnanandhaa lost his first game of the event, still he managed to finish at the top of the Rapid standings.

There is a reason Jorden van Foreest (NED) defeated the World no.1, Magnus Carlsen in a Classical battle a couple of months ago this year | Photo: Crystal Fuller / Grand Chess Tour

The reigning three-time World Blitz Women’s champion, GM Bibisara Assaubayeva sounded the bell to signal the start of Round 7 | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Interview with Javokhir Sindarov | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Replay live stream

Replay Rapid Round 4-6 live commentary by GMs Yasser Seirawan and Maurice Ashley, IMs Nazi Paikidze and Irene Sukandar | Video: Saint Louis Chess Club

Replay Rapid Round 7-9 games

Schedule and Format

Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz will have three rounds per day in the Rapid portion from 2nd to 4th August. The Blitz event will take place on 5th and 6th August. It will be a double round-robin event for the Blitz which means nine rounds will be played on each day. Round 1 starts at 12 p.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. IST. It will be a 10-player Round Robin event. Time control for Rapid will be 25 minutes + 10 seconds increment. For Blitz it is, 5 minutes + 2 seconds increment.