Fabiano Caruana on Friday won the Superbet Classic 2024 in a four-way tiebreak against Dommaraju Gukesh, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, and Alireza Firouza.
The final day at Bucharest was nerve-wracking for the participants and the spectators. Only a few tournaments ended in a four-way tie for the first place.
Fabiano was ahead of the group by 0.5 points and faced Anish Giri in the ninth and final round.
Anish got the better of him in the final round after Fabiano was put under the hammer for the first time in this tournament.
“I played terribly. Anish punished me, I played a poor game but he played well and then I wasn’t even thinking about winning the tournament anymore,” Fabiano said about the game.
On the other hand, R Praggnanandhaa suffered against Alireza Firouza for committing mistakes early in the game and giving Alireza the edge.
Praggnanandhaa fought back, showed great character, and diminished the chances for Alireza to win the game and eventually settled for a draw.
Meanwhile, D Gukesh faced the American Wesley So, who had earlier complained of illness.
Even though Gukesh began with a quirky opening, Wesley exchanged pieces and tried to repeat moves early in the game.
Nevertheless, Gukesh also put out his hand and the players shook hands about two hours into the game.
“I apologize today for the quick draw. It’s not what I wanted, but I wasn’t feeling very well the last few days. I was feeling a bit sick,” said Wesley So after the game.
The Tie Break
After the above games, Caruana, Firouza, Gukesh, and Praggnanandhaa finished the Classic at 5.0/9, resulting in a four-way tie-break to decide the tournament winner.
The players were further divided into a small group of four and a four-way round-robin rapid chess 10+5s was made to be the decisive factor in identifying the tournament’s winner.
In the first round, the Indians faced Fabiano and Alireza and bowed down to them.
However, Gukesh bounced back with a win against Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano took over the Frenchman Alireza.
The final round of the tie-breaks began with Praggnanandhaa fighting for the glory against Fabiano while Gukesh faced Alireza.
Unfortunately enough for the Indians, they went on to lose both matches.
In the process, Fabiano won the Superbet Classic 2024 claiming the prize money of $68,500.
Praggnanandhaa currently leads the Grand Chess Tour with 16.25 points followed by Gukesh at 10.25 and Fabiano at 9.25.
In a matter of a few days, leg three of the GCT will start in Zagreb.