Both matches in the 2025 Grand Chess Tour Finals enter the rapid and blitz portion with even scores. In the title match, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave squeezed for a bit but got no advantage against GM Fabiano Caruana in a rook endgame. GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu squeezed much longer against GM Levon Aronian in another endgame, but the end result was the same. Two draws.
The final day, featuring rapid and blitz, is on Friday, October 3, starting two hours earlier, at 12 p.m. ET / 18:00 CEST / 9:30 p.m. IST.
Day 5 Results
There’s everything to play for as we head into the final day of the event. We saw another two draws in the second classical game.
Vachier-Lagrave 3-3 Caruana: Caruana Holds Rook Endgame
This draw, in terms of moves played, was less than half as long as yesterday’s marathon. Vachier-Lagrave steered a Sicilian Four Knights into an endgame. He achieved a rook endgame where it looked like Black might suffer, but Caruana defended with 97.8 accuracy to split the six points.
Vachier-Lagrave said, “Fabi surprised me with his opening choice to get into this endgame, so I couldn’t remember the details,” later adding, “maybe there was some way to put more pressure. Today was not the day; I would have found it.”
Caruana attributed his 14…Qb6 move to the young Turkish GM Ediz Gurel, who played it at the 2025 FIDE Grand Swiss, and he assumed Vachier-Lagrave would be surprised by it. Though Vachier-Lagrave landed a rook on the seventh rank, he essentially maxed out and couldn’t improve his position further.
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the Game of the Day below.
Caruana didn’t hide his frustration about the first classical game, which he could have won—in fact, he said “it was absolutely trivial.” He had seen the winning 48.Qc5 but changed his mind, and said that it was a move he’d expect to play in a blitz game. He got chances later, but those were more difficult, in his opinion. Despite the equal score, he said: “If I don’t think about the previous game, then it’s a normal situation. If I do think about it, I’m trying not to, then it’s not the best situation.”
Vachier-Lagrave has reached the Final twice before, against GM Hikaru Nakamura (in 2018) and GM Ding Liren (in 2019), but hasn’t won it yet. Will the third time be the charm?
Praggnanandhaa 3-3 Aronian: No Chances For Pragg
The consolation match took much longer to finish on the second day, but the result was never in doubt. “It looked like this game was about to be over in about 30 minutes from the beginning of this show, and then this lasted four hours,” summarized GM Cristian Chirila.
It was a Queen’s Gambit Declined Tarrasch that went quickly into the endgame. Praggnanandhaa admitted, “I didn’t really believe that I’d get any big chances, but I just wanted to keep playing.” He liked his position, so why not?
Aronian agreed, saying, “I thought if anybody has a chance it’s him. There are scenarios where I might be in trouble… he’s a strong player, so he has to push no matter what.” In the end, though, the draw was never in doubt.
Aronian, who needs to win this match more than Praggnanandhaa does for entry into next year’s GCT, said, “I’m going to try to do better than I did against Fabi.” The plan? “I will have more preparation. On that day against Fabi I took it easy. I was more relaxed. This time I will work harder.”
The 2025 Grand Chess Tour Finals is taking place from September 28 to October 3 in Sao Paulo, Brazil. The $350,000 final event of the 2025 Tour sees the top-four, GMs Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Levon Aronian, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, compete in a single-elimination knockout. Each match consists of eight games, two classical (6 points for a win, 3 for a draw, 0 for a loss), two rapid (4/2/0), and four blitz (2/1/0). The winner claims the Grand Chess Tour title and the $150,000 top prize.
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