Caruana, Keymer Lead Ahead Of Final Day As Van Foreest, Giri Falter

After a draw in their direct encounter, GMs Fabiano Caruana and Vincent Keymer lead the Super Chess Classic Romania 2026 ahead of the last round. Against GM Jorden van Foreest, who started the round in shared first, GM Javokhir Sindarov scored his second win in a row. In the other decisive game, GM Bogdan-Daniel Deac scored his first win of the event against GM Anish Giri, who had been a half-point behind the leaders. In the longest game, GM Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finally escaped massive danger against GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu to secure a half-point.

The last round is two hours early, on Saturday, May 23, starting at 7:10 a.m. ET / 13:10 CEST / 4:40 p.m. IST.

Half the games were decisive, and neither draw was boring. Both featured chances for one of the sides.

Round 8 Results

The smoke has cleared, leaving Caruana and Keymer still in the lead.

Standings After Round 8

After a critical win in round seven, Caruana put himself in a great position going into the final two rounds. He had chances against Keymer in this game, but no knockout blow was missed (unlike the other draw, Praggnanandhaa vs. Vachier-Lagrave, as we will see). As Keymer said, "Everything was fine, and then I made some unexplainable errors," before he went on to explain what happened.

The German number-one got to the heart of the position in a single sentence: "I need to trade these bishops, but I can never take. That's the big problem," and White was left with the bishop pair. It was hard to turn the bishop-pair advantage into something concrete, though, and Keymer (as does the computer) points to Caruana's 32.Bd4? as the move that let all winning chances slip.

The other draw was a 139-move marathon where Praggnanandhaa got several chances, some more findable than others. The opening started with 7.Bf4 in a mainline Grunfeld, a move GM Peter Svidler said he'd never seen before and that he suspected Vachier-Lagrave hadn't either.

Pragg's 7.Bf4 is, Peter Svidler says, a move he has never yet seen in the Grunfeld! pic.twitter.com/9aDIZNFNhk

— chess24 (@chess24com) May 22, 2026

Had Praggnanandhaa won this game, he would have been one of three players in the lead. It's a painful miss because he had winning positions in both the middlegame and the endgame, but Vachier-Lagrave defended tenaciously and ultimately found a nice stalemate trick to escape in the queen endgame at the end.

Van Foreest 0-1 Sindarov

That brings us to Our Game of the Day, which was Sindarov's second win in a row after he bounced back in round seven, from the black side of the Catalan Opening. After a series of complicated trades, Sindarov had equalized, but he was shocked to see Van Foreest play 23.Rc1?, hanging the e5-pawn.

After 23...Nxe5, the Dutchman reached to play 24.Bxh7 and was a few centimeters from actually touching the piece before he pulled his hand back. He then realized that 24.Bxh7 Rd2! loses on the spot, so he had lost a clean pawn.

The conversion wasn't flawless, as Sindarov said he completely overlooked 30.Re2!, a resource that gave Van Foreest great chances to draw. But the Uzbek star continued the pressure, and eventually we reached a position where Sindarov had a knight and rook with no pawns against a rook and two pawns. He thought of GM Garry Kasparov's famous win against GM Judit Polgar in a similar ending, and he knew that he had to play for checkmate. "I know the technique," he said, "I just need to get the position."

Sometimes it helps to know the classics! GM Rafael Leitao goes over the game below.

Deac 1-0 Giri

Last but not least, the Romanian wildcard scored his first win of the event, and it will also be the last game he plays. On Saturday, he gets a forfeit-win over Firouzja and will therefore finish the tournament on a 50-percent score, gaining six rating points.

An otherwise even game went off the rails as the players neared the time control at move 40, with Giri having just three minutes left on move 37 and Deac having six. Deac was given two chances to play the decisive Rd6, and it's unfortunate for Giri that the second chance came right on move 40. Had it been move 41, he surely wouldn't have played the instantly losing 40...Nb3??, after which there was no way back.

Asked whether he understood the position was winning after 42.e6!, Deac's reply gave us a peek into the mind of a grandmaster. He said, "I see I have chances, not +3" or some other numerical computer evaluation. +3 is pretty much the engine's evaluation, by the way, but that's not the point!

The possibility of tiebreaks is realistic on Saturday, which is why the last round starts two hours early. If two players are tied, we will see a two-game rapid match. If three or more players are tied, the title will be settled with a blitz round-robin.

Three of the four boards will feature players who could win the event, with Giri vs. Praggnanandhaa being the exception.

Round 9 Pairings

The 2026 Super Chess Classic Romania is the second event on the 2026 Grand Chess Tour and runs from May 13 to 23 at the Museum of the National Bank of Romania in Bucharest. It's a 10-player round-robin with a time control of 90 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 30 more minutes for the rest of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting on move one. The prize fund is $475,000.

Previous Coverage:

• Round 7: Sindarov's 1st Win Since Candidates Sees Caruana, Van Foreest Catch Keymer
• Round 6: Keymer Extends Lead Without Playing After Firouzja Drops Out
• Firouzja Withdraws From GCT Romania After Ankle Injury
• Round 5: Firouzja Pulls Off Great Escape From Bed
• Round 4: Keymer Grabs Sole Lead As Firouzja Misses Game Due To 'Medical Issue'
• Round 3: Giri Strikes With Late Win Over Firouzja, Completing Dutch Double
• Round 2: Pragg Ends Sindarov's 53-Game Unbeaten Streak; MVL, Keymer Also Win
• Round 1: Pragg Escapes Vs. Firouzja As Super Chess Classic Begins In Bucharest
• Wildcard Niemann Wins Super Rapid & Blitz Poland 2026 With Clutch Finale