Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa sails into semis

Chennai, May 24

Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated China’s Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 to book a spot in the semifinals of the Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament.

The 16-year-old will take on Anish Giri of the Netherlands in the semifinals. World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway will take on China’s Ding Liren in the other semifinal clash. Giri and Carlsen scored comfortable 2.5-0.5 wins over Aryan Tori (Norway) and David Anton Gujjaro (Spain), respectively. Liren defeated Azerbaijan’s Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals.

In the quarterfinal against Yi late on Monday, the teenaged Praggnanandhaa opened with a win with black pieces in 90 moves. He built on the fine start to take the second game of the four-game match to go 2-0 up.

The Chinese star bounced back to claim the third game of the series to reduce the margin but a draw in the fourth was enough for the Indian to seal a spot in the semis.

Praggnanandhaa had created a stir earlier in the preliminary phase by beating Carlsen in the sixth round. He finished fourth behind Giri, Carlsen and Ding Liren in the race to the quarterfinals.

The two other Indians in the 16-player field – P Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi – finished outside the top-8 and failed to make the cut.