St Louis, we have a decisive result.
After a Sinquefield Cup in which draws became almost as much a talking point as the chess, the opening day of the Grand Chess Tour Finals brought two more.
GM Peter Svidler, eight-time Russian champion (watch his World Chess masterclass here), had a theory.
"Watching this, I want to offer an alternative explanation for why we have so few decisive games in the Grand Chess Tour—it's a curse!" Svidler said on the broadcast.
"Something is happening to players in these tournaments, we perhaps need to burn some incense or something..."
Then GM Praggnanandhaa R decided enough was enough.
Praggnanandhaa beat GM Vincent Keymer with White on Sunday to score the first classical victory of the Finals and take a significant lead in their semifinal before the match switches to rapid and blitz.
In doing so, he also jumped past Keymer to become world number-six in the live ratings, according to 2700chess.com.
And this wasn't just any win.
Under the GCT Finals' unusual scoring system, a classical victory is worth six points—compared with four for a rapid win and two for a blitz win. So after Saturday's extraordinary opening draw between the pair, Praggnanandhaa has suddenly landed a very heavy punch.
It also broke a remarkable sequence of draws for the Indian.
Praggnanandhaa had just finished joint first in the classical Sinquefield Cup without winning a single game. All nine of his games were drawn, as were the two rapid playoff games against So and the Armageddon decider that ultimately handed So the title with Black.
Add Saturday's opening GCT Finals game against Keymer and Praggnanandhaa had gone 13 consecutive games in St Louis without a decisive result across classical and rapid chess.
On Sunday, the draw curse was finally broken.
Pragg Piles On The Pressure
The irony is that there was very little dull about Praggnanandhaa's chess during that sequence.
Saturday's first semifinal game against Keymer was completely bonkers.
Both players were substantially better at different moments before the game eventually ended peacefully, prompting So—who had finished his own game and joined the broadcast—to marvel at the chess being played by the younger generation.
"The new generation just plays a totally different kind of chess," So said. "I was watching this game, and I had absolutely no clue what was happening."
Praggnanandhaa, he added, appeared completely comfortable amid the chaos: "Pragg just feels very much at home in these kinds of insane positions!"
Sunday was less chaotic, but considerably more productive.
With White, Praggnanandhaa steadily increased the pressure on Keymer and eventually reached an ending in which the German's defensive task became increasingly unpleasant.
As the screws tightened, Svidler summed up Keymer's predicament on the broadcast: "Vincent is suffering."
And this time there was no escape.
The 21-year-old Praggnanandhaa converted to register the first classical win of the Finals and give himself a potentially decisive advantage in the semifinal.
For the GCT's number-one seed, it was also a reminder of why he finished top of the regular-season standings.
Praggnanandhaa won the Saint Louis Rapid & Blitz earlier this month and then finished joint first with So in the Sinquefield Cup before losing the title on the Armageddon tiebreak.
He may have been drawing everything in sight recently, but he has also been extraordinarily difficult to beat.
Now he has remembered how to win as well.
Caruana Lands A Blow
The all-American semifinal between two serial winners of their national title remains considerably tighter.
GMs Fabiano Caruana, aged 34, and Wesley So, aged 32, drew their second classical game, meaning all four classical encounters in their match finished without a winner.
That wasn't the end of Sunday's action, however.
The players returned for the bonus blitz game and this time Caruana broke through, beating So to pick up two valuable match points.
It means the faster chess that follows will decide everything between the two Americans.
The contrast with the other semifinal is stark.
Keymer now has a six-point classical defeat to make up, while Praggnanandhaa can head into the rapid and blitz portion knowing the pressure is firmly on his opponent.
There is still plenty of chess to play.
But after a fortnight in St Louis in which it sometimes appeared nobody could win a game at all, Praggnanandhaa has finally broken the curse.
And he couldn't have picked a better time to do it.