CHENNAI: R Praggnanandhaa built it to his initially Meltwater Champions Chess Tour remaining in sensational design. The 16-year-aged displayed huge skillset and tenacity to defeat Anish Giri in the Chessable Masters semifinal. Anish experienced gone into the match unbeaten and in purple-hot sort obtaining topped the $150,000 event’s Prelim phase leaderboard. But the 29-year-previous ran into just one of the world’s top rated abilities certainly coming of age.
Praggu’s splendid general performance set up a mouth-watering clash with the new earth no.2 Ding Liren who also pulled off a shock to down the globe no.1 and Tour leader Magnus Carlsen. Extremely, schoolboy Praggu has some thing equally important to do very first on Wednesday morning — to write his Class XI examinations. “I have to be at school all over 8:45am,” he stated. “And now it is 2am!”
The semi-closing delivered unbelievable drama as the 4 top players from the Prelim phase, all on prime variety, designed it via the quarter-finals yesterday and went into fight in the semis. Praggu’s match with Giri caught fireplace in the second video game just after a tame initially come across finished in a attract.
The youngster established Giri a fatal entice in the endgame and the 29-calendar year-aged missed the only defence. Checkmate was confirmed and Pragg took the direct. Giri had lost his 1st sport of the tournament.
The third sport was a different cracker. With Giri needing a earn, the benefit switched various situations. As Giri appeared established to crack as a result of in the endgame, Praggu located a way to dig in and pressure a draw. The youngster was 2-1 in entrance with 1 activity to go. An astonishingly tough match adopted that let Giri back again in. Praggu defended brilliantly but 1 slip when the placement was on a knife-edge and Giri was onto it. The recreation ended with a gorgeous checkmate on the board and the match locked at 2-2 and heading to tiebreaks.
Then it all went wrong for Giri. He blundered badly in the initial blitz video game of the perform-off with 32. Qc2, handing Praggu’s double attack that led to a piece seize. Giri resigned in a hopeless position and appeared despondent. But the Dutchman wasn’t out nevertheless. The next blitz sport noticed Giri on top prior to a further slip gifted Praggu a pawn. There was no way back. A attract was agreed, but it was the identical as a acquire for Pragg who was via.
In distinction, Carlsen vs Ding was a match of excessive, gradual-burning strain. To add to the depth, Carlsen observed himself plagued early on by web connection challenges at his foundation for this event in Skagen, Denmark. Following 3 tense attracts in which both of those gamers probed but could not crack their opponents’ defences, it all came down to the fourth and last game.
And then, a instant no-one particular expected: Carlsen cracked. Ding broke as a result of and went on to get.
Promptly afterwards, Carlsen claimed: “I am okay. I am genuinely upset with my play in the very last recreation, but I believe total this match could have gone possibly way. I have played a great deal of shut matches with Ding and this 1 went his way which is disappointing but, yeah, that is what it is.”
A triumphant Ding, participating in from Wengzhou in China, stated he was “extremely delighted” and the outcome was “unbelievable”.
Ding extra: “I have performed him so numerous situations and I haven’t beaten him in any of the knockout phase in the Champions Chess Tour. It really is my very first time.” The two-day ultimate of the Chessable Masters begins on Wednesday night time.
Praggu’s splendid general performance set up a mouth-watering clash with the new earth no.2 Ding Liren who also pulled off a shock to down the globe no.1 and Tour leader Magnus Carlsen. Extremely, schoolboy Praggu has some thing equally important to do very first on Wednesday morning — to write his Class XI examinations. “I have to be at school all over 8:45am,” he stated. “And now it is 2am!”
The semi-closing delivered unbelievable drama as the 4 top players from the Prelim phase, all on prime variety, designed it via the quarter-finals yesterday and went into fight in the semis. Praggu’s match with Giri caught fireplace in the second video game just after a tame initially come across finished in a attract.
The youngster established Giri a fatal entice in the endgame and the 29-calendar year-aged missed the only defence. Checkmate was confirmed and Pragg took the direct. Giri had lost his 1st sport of the tournament.
The third sport was a different cracker. With Giri needing a earn, the benefit switched various situations. As Giri appeared established to crack as a result of in the endgame, Praggu located a way to dig in and pressure a draw. The youngster was 2-1 in entrance with 1 activity to go. An astonishingly tough match adopted that let Giri back again in. Praggu defended brilliantly but 1 slip when the placement was on a knife-edge and Giri was onto it. The recreation ended with a gorgeous checkmate on the board and the match locked at 2-2 and heading to tiebreaks.
Then it all went wrong for Giri. He blundered badly in the initial blitz video game of the perform-off with 32. Qc2, handing Praggu’s double attack that led to a piece seize. Giri resigned in a hopeless position and appeared despondent. But the Dutchman wasn’t out nevertheless. The next blitz sport noticed Giri on top prior to a further slip gifted Praggu a pawn. There was no way back. A attract was agreed, but it was the identical as a acquire for Pragg who was via.
In distinction, Carlsen vs Ding was a match of excessive, gradual-burning strain. To add to the depth, Carlsen observed himself plagued early on by web connection challenges at his foundation for this event in Skagen, Denmark. Following 3 tense attracts in which both of those gamers probed but could not crack their opponents’ defences, it all came down to the fourth and last game.
And then, a instant no-one particular expected: Carlsen cracked. Ding broke as a result of and went on to get.
Promptly afterwards, Carlsen claimed: “I am okay. I am genuinely upset with my play in the very last recreation, but I believe total this match could have gone possibly way. I have played a great deal of shut matches with Ding and this 1 went his way which is disappointing but, yeah, that is what it is.”
A triumphant Ding, participating in from Wengzhou in China, stated he was “extremely delighted” and the outcome was “unbelievable”.
Ding extra: “I have performed him so numerous situations and I haven’t beaten him in any of the knockout phase in the Champions Chess Tour. It really is my very first time.” The two-day ultimate of the Chessable Masters begins on Wednesday night time.
