Praggnanandhaa’s blunder ends title bid; Erigaisi halts Vachier-Lagrave’s run in Budapest
R Praggnanandhaa blundered from a winning position and was checkmated by Richard Rapport on day four of the Fast Classical competition at the Total Chess World Championship Tour Pilot in Budapest on November 15, 2026, ending his chances of reaching the title knockouts. Arjun Erigaisi, meanwhile, kept his own hopes alive by ending Maxime Vachier-Lagrave's unbeaten Fast Classical run.
The 21-year-old Praggnanandhaa committed a late mistake in their first game that allowed Rapport to deliver immediate mate; when he realised the error he put his hand to his forehead and smiled wryly. “I don’t think I can play anything worse than that, so it’s fine!” Praggnanandhaa said. The two drew their return game, leaving Praggnanandhaa at the bottom of Group B and eliminating him from title contention; his sister R Vaishali also exited title contention after losing both her games to Wesley So. Praggnanandhaa has four points from eight games, with one win, one draw and six losses. Only the top four players from each group will advance to knockout 1, while the remainder move into the classification brackets.
Arjun Erigaisi drew the first game with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and won the return game with White in an endgame to join Vachier-Lagrave on 13 points. “It wasn't an easy game but I'm happy to win. I think in general Maxime is very quick under the clock, I'm happy I was able to put pressure on him,” Erigaisi said.
Hans Niemann moved to 13 points after a win and a draw against Bibisara Assaubayeva, winning the first game with White before Bibisara held him to a draw in the day's longest game. Magnus Carlsen drew both his games against Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and, without a win in the group stage, was eliminated from title contention.
Fabiano Caruana holds a four-point advantage in Group B with 16 points after drawing both games with Liem Le, with Caruana having four wins and four draws and Liem unbeaten on 12. Alireza Firouzja leads Group A on 13 points.
Anish Giri took the outright lead in Group C with a win and a draw against Abhimanyu Mishra, winning an endgame with White in their first encounter. Jorden van Foreest joined Duda on 11 points after exchanging wins with Andrew Hong, with Hong striking first with Black and Van Foreest replying with a Black win in the return; those results leave Hong on nine points. Levon Aronian and Nodirbek Abdusattorov drew both their games, taking Aronian to nine points and leaving Abdusattorov on seven.
Firouzja thus carries a two-point lead into the final pair of group games. Two games remain for each player in the Fast Classic round-robin stage before the final standings determine places in the six knockout brackets.
