Arjun, Vachier-Lagrave In Final After Thrilling Wins Vs. Praggnanandhaa, Firouzja
GM Arjun Erigaisi is just one win away from crossing 2800 after winning the first game of his 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup Semifinal and then surviving a scare in the second when GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu missed a win on his last move. Arjun now faces armageddon king Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the Final, after the Frenchman managed to swindle GM Alireza Firouzja in a completely lost position.
The Final of the WR Chess Masters Cup starts on October 17 at 5 a.m. ET/11:00 CEST/2:30 p.m. IST.
WR Chess Masters Cup Bracket After Semifinals
Arjun 1.5-0.5 Praggnanandhaa
Praggnanandhaa was already a household name (in any chess household) by the time two years older Arjun emerged from almost nowhere during the pandemic to begin a climb to the very top of the chess world. It's taken him to his current world number-four spot, on the live ratings, and at 2797.9, a win away from becoming only the 16th player ever to cross 2800.
Arjun owed his latest win partly to the fighting spirit of Praggnanandhaa, who went for a hyper-aggressive early g5 on the black side of the Ruy Lopez, but it was clear the ploy had backfired by the time 20.Qd6! appeared on the board, forcing a superior endgame. We'd seen Praggnanandhaa demonstrate incredible tenacity against Anand in a similar situation the day before, but although this time he came close to holding, he ultimately fell to defeat in a fiendishly difficult knight endgame.
That meant that Arjun needed only a draw with Black to reach the final, but perhaps he had his eyes on the bigger goal of 2800 as he met Praggnanandhaa's fire with fire. Instead of an intricate knight endgame, we had knights sacrificed with abandon, but in the end, the crucial position turned out to be a move before the end of the match. Praggnanandhaa played 36.Qg5+? and offered a draw, but 36.f5!, cutting the defense of the c8-square and threatening to push the pawn further, was winning!
Praggnanandhaa had the brutal experience of learning about his mistake immediately afterward.
"WHAT?!"
— WR_Chess_Masters (@wr_chess) October 16, 2024
See the reaction of @ArjunErigaisi and @rpraggnachess had when they saw the engine evaluation of their endgame! pic.twitter.com/Vj9ALu8HKM
Such things happen, however—Gukesh accidentally repeating three times in a winning position vs. Praggnanandhaa in Wijk aan Zee earlier this year comes to mind.
Arjun will now face Vachier-Lagrave in the final.
Vachier-Lagrave 2-1 Firouzja
This all-French clash followed the pattern of Vachier-Lagrave's previous matches, with sharp exchanges of blow and counter-blow in the classical games ending in draws, so that everything was decided in armageddon.
Vachier-Lagrave won the bidding and began with the black pieces and seven minutes and 17 seconds against Firouzja's 10 minutes. Vachier-Lagrave played his trusty Najdorf, but in the 6.f3 variation, Firouzja invested time to steer toward an endgame that he was completely winning. His opponent is incredibly tricky, however, and although giving up a piece for connected passed pawns didn't get the computer's stamp of approval, it did leave the way open for swindles. Sure enough, at the very end, Firouzja missed one move, and it was immediately game over!
One BLUNDER is all it takes 💔
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) October 17, 2024
edit: @ram_abhyudaya#chess #chessbaseindia #chessgame #alirezafirouzja pic.twitter.com/EQ1S5pUf4v
That sets up a mouth-watering final, with more at stake than just the trophy or €20,000 top prize. If Arjun wins in classical chess, he'll be a 2800 player, while there are also FIDE circuit points (based only on the eight highest-rated players in an event) at stake.
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave advances to the final of the WR Chess Masters Cup after fierce Armageddon against Firouzja!
— WR_Chess_Masters (@wr_chess) October 16, 2024
Tomorrow MVL will face Arjun Erigaisi. The winner will get 27.94 points to the FIDE Circuit!
That points haul would be second only to the points Firouzja gained for winning the Sinquefield Cup and would make Arjun top above GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov on the leaderboard in the race to qualify for a spot in the 2026 FIDE Candidates Tournament. With only two out of a potential seven scores, Vachier-Lagrave isn't yet in that race, though tournament victory would see him jump from 44th to 11th place.
The 2024 WR Chess Masters Cup is a 16-player knockout held in the Langham Hotel, London, that runs October 14-18. Each match features two games using the shortest possible classical time control: 60 minutes for 30 moves, 30 minutes for 20 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with no increment. A 1-1 tie is decided by bidding armageddon, with 10 minutes for White. The prize fund is €58,000, with €20,000 for top place.
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Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.
