The Grand Chess Tour Finals are a knockout among the four highest-ranked players of the regular season, and each match is played across three time controls: two classical games, two rapid games and four blitz games. Praggnanandhaa beat Vincent Keymer in the semi-final while Caruana came through against Wesley So. In the final, the classical phase left Praggnanandhaa six points behind at 3-9. He took both rapid games to move ahead 11-9, and then held the position through four blitz games - the opening blitz game was drawn, Caruana won the second to level at 12-12, Praggnanandhaa restored a two-point lead in the third, and a draw in the last game was enough to close out the match at 15-13.

This is Praggnanandhaa's second major title of 2026. He won Norway Chess in Oslo earlier in the year, closing with four consecutive classical wins to finish on 18 points ahead of Wesley So. The Grand Chess Tour title adds a circuit victory to that single-event win, which is a different kind of achievement: the Tour rewards consistency across a season rather than one strong fortnight. Praggnanandhaa is mentored by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, and his rise sits alongside that of a wider group of young Indian grandmasters that has moved India to the front rank of world chess.