All posts tagged: Super Chess Classic Romania 2026

Praggnanandhaa ends tied-fifth at Romania classical event; Vincent Keymer wins

Praggnanandhaa ends tied-fifth at Romania classical event; Vincent Keymer wins

Published by Webster

2 min readMay 24, 2026 08:07 AM IST German grandmaster Vincent Keymer clinched the Super Chess Classic Romania 2026 tournament with a final round victory over Jorden van Foreest on Saturday. Keymer’s win was the only decisive game of the final round at Bucharest, but it ended up being a tournament deciding result on a day where five players had a chance to win the title. R Praggnanandhaa, India’s only contender in the tournament, ended joint-fifth, along with four other players. Praggnanandhaa’s only victory in the nine rounds he played in the tournament came against world championship contender Javokhir Sindarov while the Indian prodigy had lost in the seventh round to Fabiano Caruana. Pragg will now fly to Oslo to compete in the Norway Chess tournament, where he will be pitted against world champion D Gukesh, world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, Keymer, Wesley So and Alireza Firouzja. The Norway Chess tournament starts from Monday. On Saturday, Praggnanandhaa played out a 31-move draw against Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri. Both players were not in contention to claim …

‘Too unfair to Pragg, Sindarov’

‘Too unfair to Pragg, Sindarov’

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: May 21, 2026 02:59 PM IST After playing two rounds of the Super Chess Classic Romania tournament from a hotel bed with a leg propped up on pillows due to an ankle injury, French grandmaster Alireza Firouzja pulled out of the classical tournament mid-way. Alireza had picked up the ankle injury after his third round game. Alireza’s pull out has not gone well with some, including FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky. “Mixed feelings about Alireza. I praised him a couple of days ago. We all saw he really is finding it difficult/impossible to sit and play, but he’d better quit then than now. It is simply too unfair towards Pragg and Sindarov. And actually also other players who had to work to beat him, not having an extra free day (one may argue though, they got rating points as a compensation),” Sutovsky said on X. Alireza Firouzja plays Javokhir Sindarov from his bed after injuring his ankle. (Photo: Lennart Ootes/Grand Chess Tour) Sutovsky meant that Alireza’s mid-event pull out would mean that besides …

Praggnanandhaa holds off Jorden van Foreest to stay unbeaten in Romania | Chess News

Praggnanandhaa holds off Jorden van Foreest to stay unbeaten in Romania | Chess News

Published by Webster

3 min readUpdated: May 17, 2026 11:36 PM IST India’s R Praggnanandhaa managed to sidestep a potential banana-peel of an opponent in Dutch grandmaster Jorden van Foreest in round 4 of the Super Chess Classic Romania 2026 tournament. Pragg’s 35-move draw on Sunday evening against Van Foreest means that the Indian prodigy has remained unbeaten so far at the event in Bucharest. While the result against the Dutchman is his third draw, Pragg managed to defeat World Championship contender Javokhir Sindarov, the one opponent he would have ached to defeat. Pragg and van Foreest were part of the five-player leading pack heading into the fourth round, but the draw ensured they are half a point behind the tournament leader Vincent Keymer. The day started with the game between Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana not being played because of what the organisers said was a “medical issue” for the French-Iranian grandmaster. Beginning with a Zukertort Opening, the Pragg versus van Foreest game didn’t light up at all and ended quickly as compared to the Indian grandmaster’s …