Praggnanandhaa second after Armageddon loss to Wesley So in Sinquefield Cup

R. Praggnanandhaa finished second in the Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis on August 20, 2026 after tying with Wesley So on 5.5 points through nine rounds and losing the deciding Armageddon tiebreak.

Praggnanandhaa drew his final-round game with Anish Giri, which sent him into a tiebreak with So, who had led the event for much of the tournament. The two Rapid tiebreak games were also drawn, forcing an Armageddon decider.

In the Armageddon game Wesley So, playing Black, held a draw to secure the tournament victory. The official tiebreak scoreline was recorded as: So beat Praggnanandhaa 1-1, 1-0.

Praggnanandhaa required a win over Giri in the final round to overtake So in the standings, but Giri produced timely defensive resources that prevented that outcome. The final-round draw left both players level on points and moved the title contest to the tiebreak stage.

Javokhir Sindarov needed a win with Black against So in the ninth round to join the leaders, but So exchanged pieces and steered the game into a bishop-and-pawns endgame to force a draw. Ninth-round Sinquefield Cup results: Wesley So (USA) 5.5 drew with Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb) 5; Jorden van Foreest (Ned) 2 drew with Vincent Keymer (Ger) 5; Levon Aronian (USA) 4 drew with Samuel Sevian (USA) 4.5; Fabiano Caruana (USA) 4.5 drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra) 4.5; R. Praggnanandhaa 5.5 drew with Anish Giri (Ned) 4.

In the Cairns Cup for women, Tan Zhongyi emerged champion despite losing her final-round game to Stavroula Tsolakidou. Ninth-round Cairns Cup results: Stavroula Tsolakidou (Gre) 4.5 bt Tan Zhongyi (Chn) 6.5; Alice Lee (USA) 6 drew with Carissa Yip (USA) 5; Bibisara Assaubayeva (Kaz) 5 drew with Koneru Humpy 3.5; Divya Deshmukh 4.5 drew with Anna Muzychuk (Ukr) 4.5; Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) 3 bt R. Vaishali 2.5.

Wesley So claimed the Sinquefield Cup title after the tiebreak, while Tan Zhongyi finished as champion of the Cairns Cup.