St. Louis (USA):Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa lost the finals in the Armageddon game against eventual champion American Wesley So to finish second in the Sinquefield Cup here.

After drawing with Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the final Classical game, Praggnanandhaa forced a tiebreaker against Wesley So who was leading the tournament for most of the rounds.

Wesley So was able to play out a draw with black pieces to win the tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour. The rules clearly stipulated that the tied players would play two rapid games.

If the tie is still unresolved, one final Armageddon with five minutes for white and four for black will be played, wherein black wins the match if he draws. As it happened both the rapid games ended in draws, leaving the score tied at 1-1. In the final Armageddon, Praggnanandhaa had the more difficult chance of winning with white which the Indian could not do and the game ended in a draw.

However, the silver lining for Praggnanandhaa was that he stood first at the end of the last event and has now qualified for the grand finale later this year.

For the records, Praggnanandhaa scored 35.5 in the total tour which was a full point clear of Wesley So.