Norway chess: Pragg takes Caruana scalp, Vaishali in top form

Stavanger, June 2

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa scored a massive, hard-earned victory over world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of the United States and made his way to the top-10 of world rankings after the end of the fifth round of the Norway Chess here.

Hikaru Nakamura of the United States got the better of off-colour world champion Ding Liren of China to stretch his lead to a point over Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

With 10 points, Nakamura has a point’s lead over Carlsen at the halfway stage of this $161,000 prize money tournament.

Carlsen outwitted Firouzja Alireza of France from a drawn rook and pawns endgame. With five rounds still to come, the world No. 1 is followed by Praggnanandhaa on 8.5 points, while Alireza is a distant fourth on 6.5. Caruana with five points is in the fifth spot while Ding Liren is clearly not enjoying the event with just 2.5 points to his credit.

In the women’s event, R Vaishali continued her dream run and defeated Tingjie Lei of China in the Armageddon game to lead with 10 points.

Anna Muzychuk is the closest to the Indian and is a point behind after defeating Pia Cramling of Sweden in the classical game.

Women’s world champion Wenjun Ju is third on 7.5 after scoring her fifth straight victory in the Armageddon over Koneru Humpy.

Lei stands fourth on six points, two points clear of Humpy, who seems to be struggling at the halfway mark. Cramling is at the bottom of the table with three points.