Fabiano Caruana is the Grand Chess Tour 2025 champion
In a fitting culmination to the Grand Chess Tour’s milestone 10th anniversary season, American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana emerged victorious in the 2025 GCT Finals, securing his second overall Tour championship and a $150,000 top prize. The event, held from September 28 to October 3 at the World Trade Center in São Paulo, Brazil, marked the first time the Finals graced South American soil, drawing chess enthusiasts from around the globe to witness high-stakes battles among the elite.
Caruana’s triumph capped a dominant year for the 33-year-old in this year’s Tour, that blended classical precision with rapid-fire excitement in a $1.6 million global circuit that spanned Croatia, Poland, Romania, and the United States.
More about the Grand Chess Tour
Warsaw: Grand Chess Tour 2025 Warsaw (replay) / Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Warsaw, Rapid info
Bucharest: Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Bucharest (replay) / Grand Chess Tour 2025 – Bucharest, Classical info
Zagreb: Grand Chess Tour Croatia 2025 rapid and blitz
Saint Louis: Saint Louis Rapid and blitz (replay) / Sinquefield Cup (replay)
Sao Paulo: Grand Chess Tour final
About the Grand Chess Tour Final
The Finals adopted a single-elimination knockout format featuring the top four qualifiers: Fabiano Caruana, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Levon Aronian, and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Each semifinal and the title match consisted of eight games—two classical (scoring 6 for a win, 3 for a draw), two rapid (4/2/0), and four blitz (2/1/0).
In the semifinals, Caruana edged out Aronian 15-13 in a tense affair dominated by draws until a crucial blitz victory with Black sealed his advance, while Vachier-Lagrave overpowered the young Indian star Praggnanandhaa 17-11.
The title match between Caruana and Vachier-Lagrave exploded into life after a cautious start. Vachier-Lagrave struck first in the opening classical game, grinding down Caruana in a marathon 89-move affair that lasted nearly five hours, capitalizing on an exchange sacrifice to claim a narrow lead. The second classical encounter ended in a draw, pushing the action to rapid and blitz where Caruana unleashed a ferocious comeback, reeling off three straight wins to surge ahead and never look back.
Caruana’s Finals victory was no fluke. He had already conquered the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz and the Sinquefield Cup, amassing points that propelled him into the Finals as the overwhelming favorite. This trifecta of titles echoed his 2014 breakthrough but arrived with greater maturity, as Caruana credited tactical preparation and mental resilience for his edge over a field featuring wildcard stars like Carlsen, Gukesh Dommaraju, and defending champion Alireza Firouzja.
Photos by by Lennart Ootes and Eric Rosen