Grand Chess Tour Finals: Praggnanandhaa draws second classical game, …

St. Louis (Missouri) [US], August 27 (ANI): Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured a draw in his second classical game of the Grand Chess Tour (GCT) title clash on Wednesday, but his opponent Fabiano Caruana still enjoys a six-point lead. chickenroadslot.pro

The young Indian grandmaster had lost his first classical game to Caruana 6-0, but managed a draw in the second classical game, 3-3. With the end of the classical games, Praggnanandhaa trails 3-9, but has rapid and blitz rounds to make a comeback and win the title.

Final: Caruana 9–3 Pragg

Fabiano Caruana won the first classical game, earning 6 points. The second classical game ended in a draw, giving both players 3 points and leaving Fabi with a 9–3 lead heading into rapid and blitz.

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With a six-point advantage, Caruana is in a strong… pic.twitter.com/yQT7nWC1Kr

— Grand Chess Tour (@GrandChessTour) August 26, 2026

Praggnanandhaa suffered a setback in the opening classical game of the 2026 Grand Chess Tour Finals, losing to Fabiano Caruana as the American took a 6-0 lead in their title match on Tuesday (local time)

Praggnanandhaa had held his own through much of the game and navigated an unusual opening setup to reach a complex middlegame. However, a costly one-move error on the 28th move allowed Caruana to seize the advantage and convert it into victory, according to Chess.com.

The result handed Caruana six points under the scoring system being used in the final, putting the American in a strong position ahead of the second classical game. Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, will need to recover quickly with only a limited number of games remaining in the match.

The opening phase produced an unconventional version of the Italian Opening, with both players adopting setups that challenged traditional opening principles. Caruana reached a middlegame featuring a bishop against a knight, but the position did not offer him a clear advantage initially.

The American GM was required to play accurately to maintain stability before Praggnanandhaa’s 28…Rc8?? proved decisive. The move overlooked a tactical opportunity and resulted in the loss of material, after which Caruana was able to bring the game to a winning conclusion.

Caruana’s victory was particularly significant as it ended a long wait for him to win a classical game at the Grand Chess Tour Finals. The American had not won a classical game in the competition since the event was introduced in 2018, although he has only participated in the finals three times, in 2018, 2025 and 2026. (ANI)

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Former South Africa captain and opener Dean Elgar has confirmed his retirement from professional cricket at the conclusion of the County Championship 2026 season.

The 39-year-old Elgar is currently playing for Essex in England in the County Championship. He had retired from international cricket in January 2024, with a solid performance in his farewell series at home against India.

In his career’s last Test more than two years ago, Elgar bagged the Man of the Series award for being the top scorer of a low-scoring 2-Test series, being the only batsman across both teams to score more than 200 runs in a series that was played on pace-friendly pitches.

I feel it’s the right time for me now: Deal Elgar

At the end of that series, Elgar had said, “I saw the writing on the wall a year ago.” And now, with about a month to go for the end of the County Championship season, the left-hander has called time on his professional career.

In his retirement note, Dean Elgar hinted he would love to spend more time with his family.

Elgar said, “I feel it’s the right time for me now. I’m not getting any younger, 39 years old, and I’ve got a lot of things going on back home with regards to a young but growing-up-very-quickly family. It’s the right time for me now to be present at home and be there for my partner and my kids. It’s been a great journey so far. It’s not done yet, but at the end of the season, I will be retiring.”

Dean Elgarmade his first-class and List-A debut in February 2006. He has featured in a whopping 279 first-class matches so far, including 86 Test matches for South Africa.

Dean Elgar’s career, stats, and record in Test and first-class cricket:

Dean Elgar captained South Africa at the 2006 Under-19 World Cup and earned his maiden international cap in 2012. While Elgar made his ODI debut first, he managed to play in only 8 ODIs. But the southpaw had a prolific Test career.

The opener scored 5347 Test runs at an average of 37, with 14 centuries, before retiring in 2024. The second half of his Test career was spent largely playing on the fast-bowling-friendly pitches at home, while away surfaces also became tougher as more result pitches came into preparation. Elgar captained South Africa in 18 Test matches, including in his last Test.

Currently, Elgar is only 19 runs short of 19,000 first-class runs. He has notched up 55 centuries and 77 fifties in red-ball cricket.

“I was fortunate enough to represent my country for twelve years, and then the responsibility of captaining South Africa, that’s one of the proudest moments of my career. If you look back at the journey of where I have come from, I don’t think many people would have given me a lot of hope of having a career [in cricket], let alone one that spans over two decades,” the opener said.

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Boria Majumdar

52 Shepherd Street. The moment the address is mentioned, the one word that comes to mind is reverence. For this is where the greatest cricketer of all time, Sir Donald Bradman, lived for a good 14 years between 1911 and 1924. Located in scenic Bowral, this house has been one of the most visited residence museums in the world. In fact, 52 Shepherd Street is one of the many Bradman attractions in Bowral.

The journey actually starts a mile before you enter the town itself. On the left-hand side of the highway, tucked away amidst bushes, is a billboard with ‘Bowral’ written on it. That’s when you first know that you are nearing cricket’s sacred pilgrimage. And once you enter the quaint little town, most things carry a Bradman connection. Be it the roads, a few of which are named after Bradman, or the cricket ground, which too bears the name of Sir Donald, he is the one who dominates the Bowral narrative. And the best thing is how each Bradman memory has been preserved.

The Bradman Oval is easily one of the best-maintained grounds in Australia and, being located just next to the Bradman Museum, it is an added attraction for every tourist who comes to Bowral. The museum, redone and refurbished, is a marvel. Specially curated audiovisual shows, fascinating Bradman artefacts and memorabilia — the Bradman Museum is one for the bucket list.
Other attractions in Bowral include the house at 20 Glebe Street, where Sir Don lived for four years between 1924 and 1928.

However, the best part about a visit to Bowral is the experience at the tank stand. While the Bradman Museum has a replica of it and visitors can play with a stump and a plastic golf ball, the house at 52 Shepherd Street still has the original tank stand that Sir Don used to hone his skills. Multiple stumps are kept next to it, and new golf balls are placed in a bucket for visitors to experience and recreate what Sir Donald used to do for hours every day. And let me tell you, the act isn’t easy. The golf ball can go either way, and to be able to hit it with a stump is seriously difficult.

This is where Bradman and Sachin Tendulkar come together and, in a sense, become one. While Sir Don honed his skills with a golf ball in Bowral in the 1910s and early 1920s, 60 years later Sachin Tendulkar did the same in Mumbai, without knowing a thing about Sir Donald. Sachin had asked his aunt to shave off the sides of a golf ball and give him throwdowns, trying to perfect his defensive technique in the process.

From this visit to Bowral, one thing stayed with me. The whole Bradman experience has now been curated and immortalised for all time. Can we do the same for a Gavaskar or a Tendulkar in India?

[From the archives]

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Australian left-arm fast bowler Mitchell Starc has risen to the No. 1 position in the ICC Test bowling rankings for the first time in his career. This achievement brings an end to Jasprit Bumrah's stay at the top following Starc's match-winning performance during Australia's recent two-Test series against Bangladesh.

Indian pacer Jasprit Bumrah initially secured the top spot in February 2024 and maintained his hold over the top rank for most of the following two years. However, Bumrah's withdrawal from India's current ICC World Test Championship series against Sri Lanka, along with Starc's Player of the Series performance against Bangladesh, changed the standings at the top of the bowling rankings.

Starc's ten-wicket haul in the second Test at Mackay took the 36-year-old up two places. He crossed both Bumrah and New Zealand seam bowler Matt Henry to achieve the top ranking. Throughout a 15-year Test career spent mainly within the top ten, Starc had previously reached the top three but had not held the top rank.

Starc on top as Bumrah drops back

Following Starc's rise to the top, Bumrah dropped to second place while Henry slipped to third. Australian captain Pat Cummins moved to fourth spot after taking six wickets against Bangladesh, and Nathan Lyon moved up two positions into tenth place after his performance against Bangladesh.

England pace duo Ollie Robinson and Josh Tongue received a major boost following their contributions to a victory over Pakistan at Headingley. The pair took 16 wickets combined, taking Robinson 15 spots to 11th and moving Tongue up 16 places to 17th.

The upper level of the Test batting rankings remained unchanged, with England's Harry Brook and Joe Root holding the first and second positions, followed by Australia's Steve Smith and Travis Head in third and fourth.

India's Rishabh Pant made the largest jump within the top ten batters, rising six places to joint seventh following a second-innings half-century against Sri Lanka in Galle. Lower down, Cameron Green, Dhananjaya de Silva, Abdullah Shafique, and KL Rahul also registered a rise in the rankings. Ravindra Jadeja maintained his position as the top-ranked Test all-rounder after his impressive performance against Sri Lanka.

Vaibhav Tripathi, Colombo

There was a guy who used to change the course of the game from behind the wickets. Generally, whenever this phrase is used, on most occasions, it has been in relation to MS Dhoni. The legendary wicket-keeper-batter is regarded as having one of the best cricketing brains. In his decorated career, so many times he has changed the course of the game with his decision-making or by passing on the tips on to the bowlers. On day 4 of the second Test, Dhoni’s apprentice, Pant proved to be the catalyst in the process of getting the wicket of Pasindu Sooriyabandara who batted really well for his 92.

Sri Lanka adopted an aggressive blueprint to unsettle India’s spinners, and Sooriyabandara led the charge with intent. From the moment he walked in, his footwork reflected a clear urgency to keep the scoreboard moving. Unlike his first-innings 80, the right-hander was far more proactive against spin early on, repeatedly stepping out of his crease to disrupt the bowlers’ rhythm and put them under immediate pressure.

With the pitch occasionally offering big turn, and seldom from the line of the stumps, India’s three spinners toiled hard with little reward through the first two sessions. And Sri Lanka’s aggression forced them into defensive plans, with Manav Suthar going over the wicket to Sooriyabandara in an effort to challenge his sweep out of the rough outside the leg stump. This tactic, though, failed miserably. Post tea, India went back to the basics. They brought control and dried up the boundaries. With no boundaries coming, as a set batter, Sooriyabandara was the one who had to do something having understood the nature of the wicket. More pressure came on him when he closely survived a close call thanks to the DRS.

Sensing something is going to happen, Pant told Manav, Shubman Gill and the fielders that a restless Sooriyabandara could try clearing the inner ring.

“Restless ho raha hain, mid-on ready rehna. (He is getting restless, someone in mid-on get ready.),” said Pant.

Pant conveyed the message in Hindi.
Not sure if Sooriyabandara understood what he said. But what he did was exactly what Pant wanted the opener to do.

With runs drying up, a batter in the 90s gave a pre-empted charge to Manav. The bowler saw it coming after which he slowed down the pace and pushed it well outside off. Sooriyabandara had a desperate lunge, but he couldn’t come anywhere near the ball and Pant had ample time to do the stumping.

Had Sooriyabandara scored that hundred, things could’ve been completely different by the end of the day. Pant took the route of playing mental games and fair to say he was successful in his motive. Due credit to the bowler for bowling outside of the batter’s reach, but the seed of doubt was sown in by Pant. Gill also had bluffed him with his field placement.

Poor Pasindu, once again found himself caught in the tense territory of the nervous 90s, undone by a player who knows all too well the frustration of falling short of three figures himself.

This episode was another illustration of the mental demands of the game, that can be just as decisive as physical endurance.

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