In a round that barely lasted two hours, we saw two draws in both semifinal matches of the 2025 Grand Chess Tour Finals. The scores, in GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu vs. GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and GM Fabiano Caruana vs. GM Levon Aronian, remain equal at 6-6. With the classical portion over, the four players will contest six games of speed chess.
Day three, featuring rapid and blitz, is on Tuesday, September 30, starting at 2 p.m. ET / 20:00 CEST / 11:30 p.m. IST.
Day 2 Results
With draws in all the classical games, we rush off to the rapid and blitz. They will play two rapid games (25+10 time control) followed by four blitz games (5+2). A rapid win is worth four points, while a blitz win is two.
Aronian 3-3 Caruana: Aronian Keeps It Solid
The first game to end was Aronian-Caruana, which liquidated into a sterile position pretty quickly.
Caruana hinted at fighting intentions with 2…g6 after 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3, perhaps offering to play a Grunfeld or a King’s Indian Defense. Aronian, surprised by the move, kept things solid. Aronian said, “He surprised me with g6. It’s kind of an invitation to… a Grunfeld or e4-e5, which is quite a modern way to approach this opening and I think it’s totally fine for Black.”
Caruana explained, “I was ready for a wide open fight too. I think my opening choice was kind of hinting that I was going for complicated positions, but it can also peter out to equality.” He explained that if White chooses to play solidly, the best approach is to play solidly with Black too in this case; if White is ambitious, Black can play in the same way. But you can’t force things with Black, especially considering the match situation.
Meanwhile, Aronian approached with caution: “I told myself I gotta stay solid and if he wants to do something new, let him do it, and I just try to stay solid and not mess things up for tomorrow.”
I just try to stay solid and not mess things up for tomorrow.
—Levon Aronian
As for their upcoming matchup in rapid and blitz, Caruana said, “We tend to have these close matches. It’s almost never one-sided.” Caruana remembered having the upper hand in their American Cup matchup, but in the St. Louis Rapid and Blitz he said of his own play, “I was playing rather poorly and he played extremely well in blitz and in rapid. So recent form he’s doing well in blitz, but I think it will be close.”
So recent form he’s doing well in blitz, but I think it will be close.
—Fabiano Caruana
Aronian, on his turn, said, “I’m always confident when I get to play blitz and rapid because I love to play blitz and rapid! The issue is when you’re trying to create something unbalanced in a classical game, it’s not going to work, but in blitz and rapid there are more opportunities for that.”
Vachier-Lagrave 3-3 Praggnanandhaa: MVL Gets Nothing
Vachier-Lagrave, surprised in the opening by move seven, called his choice of 8.Bc4 “anticlimactic” and “not really the way to go, probably.” Black equalized without any real challenge, and by 12…Be7 Praggnanandhaa said, “there is nothing [for White].” The game was over in 21 moves.
The Indian grandmaster, like Caruana, was ready for a fight with the black pieces, but wasn’t upset without one. He said, “I just wanted to play normal chess. If there’s a fight I will fight and if I don’t get anything then a draw is not a bad result. I just wanted to play a bit faster today, especially after what happened yesterday,” hinting at his blunder with one second left—but one he wasn’t punished for.
GM Rafael Leitao analyzes the brief Game of the Day below.
Both players praised their opponents’ pedigree in faster time controls. Vachier-Lagrave said, “Pragg in general is very capable in rapid and blitz. He showed it this year in the Grand Chess Tour, of course, even though his best performance was in the classical.” The younger GM said of the French number-two, “He’s a very strong player and it will be interesting to play shorter formats with him.”
Two players will be eliminated from the battle for the $150,000 top prize on Tuesday. Which two players are your picks to make it to the Final? Let us know in the comments below!
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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