Fabiano Caruana emerged victorious at the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in Bucharest after a dramatic final day.

The first of two classical events, this tournament was a 10-player round robin with nine tour regulars and one wildcard, local Romanian favorite Bogdan-Daniel Deac. With double the prize fund of the rapid events, the players fought for a total purse of $350,000.

Fabiano took the lead in Round 4 and maintained it until the last round. However, he suffered defeat at the hands of Anish Giri, which allowed Alireza Firouzja Gikesh D and Praggnanandhaa R to catch up and tie in first place.

Alireza had every reason to be disappointed as he missed a golden opportunity to secure the title outright after misplaying a winning position against Praggnanandhaa. With all other games of the final round ending in draws, a total of four players tied for first place, leading to a round-robin rapid chess tiebreaker to determine the winner.

Although 38 out of 45 classical games in the main event were drawn, all the tiebreaker games ended in victories. The unfazed Fabiano Caruana (deemed to be not as good at faster time controls) passed this rapid chess test with flying colours. The American GM won all three games and clinched the title and the $68,750 first prize. Alireza Firouzja lost to Fabiano but scored two wins to take second place, while Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh finished third and fourth, respectively.

Photos: Grand Chess Tour/Lennart Ootes

Official website: grandchesstour.org/