R Pragganandhaa will lock horns with the world’s best once again when the Indian Grandmaster takes the elite field in the St Louis Rapid and Blitz event that gets underway. Despite a minor fall in recent results, Praggnanandhaa will be hoping to finish on the podium in the Grand Chess Tour final rankings, which would also entitle him to a bonus cash prize of USD 175,000. The winner will receive USD 100,000, while the runner-up will receive an additional USD 50,000.

Standing third in the overall tour results thus far, the Indian has two back-to-back outings to improve his position, as he will compete in the Sinquefield Cup immediately following the rapid and blitz, alongside compatriot and world championship challenger D Gukesh.

With two straight victories in Bucharest, Romania, and Zagreb, Croatia, last year’s tour winner Fabiano Caruana of the United States is well on his way to an encore, having already collected 22.25 points. Alireza Firoujza of France is second with 17.58 points, ahead of Pragganandhaa, who had 16.25 points. Not far behind is Gukesh on 14.25 points, who is placed fourth but the problem for him lies in the fact that he has only one event remaining unlike the top three who will play all four.

The traditional suspects for the rapid and blitz will be Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France, Nodirbek Abdusattarov of Uzbekistan, and Wesley So of the United States. The remaining three entrants are all wild cards, including the US trio of Levon Aronian, Hikaru Nakamura, and Lenier Dominguez.

The event will feature nine quick and 18 blitz games amongst these ten players.
Each quick victory is worth two points, while a draw is worth one point. In the blitz, one point is granted for a win and 0.5 for each draw.

The event’s overall prize pool is USD 175000, with the winner receiving USD 40000. It may be recalled that Caurana had won the Zagreb leg with as many as five rounds to spare. Pragganandhaa did not compete in Zagreb, but he was a joint champion of the Superbet Classic in Bucharest, alongside Caruana, Alireza, and Gukesh. However, in the tiebreak, Caruana overcame all of his opponents to win the event.

Meanwhile, Ajeet Kumar Verma, Delhi Chess Association secretary is set to become the new head of operations of the All-India Chess Federation. Verma and Arbind Kumar Singh were the two candidates short-listed for the role. However, Verma has emerged as the frontrunner for the post.