Indian Grandmaster R. Praggnanandan created history by making a spectacular comeback on Thursday. He defeated Fabiano Caruana on Thursday to become the first Indian to win a Grand Chess Tour final.
Praggnanandan was trailing by a huge margin of six points on the last day, but he performed brilliantly and won both the rapid games. After this, he maintained his lead in blitz even in a pressure match and won the title with the score of 15-13. This is the biggest title win of Praggnanandan's career so far. With this victory he received prize money of two lakh US dollars.
After the classical matches, Caruana had taken a lead of six points. However, Praggnanandan completely changed the complexion of the match in rapid and blitz. He lost the first classical match 0-6, while the second match was drawn 3-3. He then took the lead by winning both rapid matches and maintained it in four blitz games. After winning the title, Praggnanandan said that he was happy to win the title. He described the Grand Chess Tour as one of the most important tournaments in terms of tradition after the World Championships.
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