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Indian Grandmaster R Praggnananda won all three matches on the last day and finished jointly on top with Alireza Firozha of France in the rapid category of the Zagreb Grand Chess Tour with 12 points. Praggnananda, who was lagging on the second day, defeated Ivan Saric of Croatia, Deak Bogdan Daniel of Romania and Aneesh Giri of Netherlands on the last day. France’s Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusatorov finished second with 11 points each.

Praggnananda’s brilliant performance

Praggnananda, who recently won the title of the prestigious Norway Chess Tournament, made an excellent opening against Sarich. The ‘Caro Can’ defense gave the Indian players a strong position right from the start. Although Praggnananda took a long time to reach victory, he remained in control throughout the game.

In the second game, Praggnananda, playing ‘Petroff Defence’, destroyed Dick Bogden Daniel’s defence, due to which the result was clear by the 15th move itself. The Romanian player soon surrendered. In the last game of the day, Praggnananda defeated Anish Giri in 34 moves.

What was the condition of Gukesh?

World champion D Gukesh finished joint third. Gukesh and Germany’s Vincent Keimer scored 10 points each. Gukesh could not achieve even a single win on the last day. All three of his matches ended in a draw. Anish Giri could reach 8 points. Deak Bogden Daniels and Jordan Van Fores scored 7 points each. Sarich could score only 2 points and finished last.

There were 9 rounds of competitions in the rapid category. Now there will be a blitz category of 18 rounds and the winner will be decided on the basis of total points of both the categories.