Superbet Blitz Chess: R Praggnanandhaa fights back to claim second place

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured second place in the overall standings at the Superbet Rapid & Blitz tournament's blitz section, part of the Grand Chess Tour, after recovering from a challenging start on Tuesday. Despite initial setbacks in rapid chess, he demonstrated exceptional skill in the blitz format, collecting 5.5 points from nine games.
Praggnanandhaa faced early defeats against Romania's Deac Bogdan-Daniel and USA's Levon Aronian but quickly regained momentum. He secured victories against France's Firouzja Alireza and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, followed by wins over Bulgaria's Veselin Topalov, Aravindh, and Romania's David Gavrilescu.

The blitz format featured five-minute games with a three-second increment after each move. Praggnanandhaa maintained his characteristic style of playing complex games, particularly excelling in the latter rounds.
Vladimir Fedoseev of Slovenia dominated the tournament with an impressive 8/9 on the penultimate day. His outstanding performance has given him a commanding lead of 19 points out of a possible 27, placing him 3.5 points ahead of Praggnanandhaa.
Indian GM Aravindh Chithambaram struggled during the day, managing only 3.5 points from nine games. After a promising start with 2.5 points in his first four games, he secured just one point from his final five matches.
Fedoseev's substantial lead suggests he needs only 4.5 points from the remaining nine games on the final day to secure overall victory, barring any dramatic shifts in other players' performances.
Quiz: Who's that IPL player?
The current standings after nine rounds of rapid and blitz show Vladimir Fedoseev leading with 19 points, followed by R Praggnanandhaa at 15.5 points. Aravindh Chithambaram, Levon Aronian, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave share third place with 14.5 points each.

Firouzja Alireza holds sixth position with 14 points, while Duda Jan-Kryzsztof and Deac Bogdan-Daniel are tied at 13 points each. David Gavrilescu and Veselin Topalov occupy the final positions with 9 and 8 points respectively.
Aravindh, who shared the top position in the rapid section, now faces a challenging task in the second half of the blitz format to maintain his earlier success.