Julius Baer Cup: Lone wolf Arjun Erigaisi in semifinals

New York, September 23

Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi edged out fellow teenager Christopher Yoo of the USA in the quarterfinals via tie-breaker to reach the last-four round of the Julius Baer Generation Cup online rapid chess tournament.

R Praggnanandhaa, however, crashed out after losing 1-3 to Germany’s Vincent Keymer.

World champion Magnus Carlsen, who beat USA’s Levon Aronian in the quarterfinals, will next face the 17-year-old Keymer while Erigaisi will take on Vietnam’s Liem Quang Le in the other semifinal

Erigaisi and Yoo were locked 2-2 after the four rapid games. The Indian won the opening game before his opponent bounced back to level the scores. The next two games also panned out the same way.

In the blitz tie-break, Erigaisi won the first game to seize the advantage and drew the second to progress to the semifinals.

Praggnanandhaa suffered a setback when he went down in the opening game to Keymer. The next two games ended in draws. With the 17-year-old Indian needing a win to force a tie-break, the German scored a 42-move victory to seal a spot in the semifinals.

Carlsen ousted Aronian 3-1 despite losing the opening game to continue his superb run. He had lost only one game in the preliminary phase, when he retired after just two moves against Hans Niemann.

Le eliminated Niemann 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals, closing out the match with a decisive win in the fourth game following three consecutive draws. In the semifinals, the players will take part in two sets of four-game matches.