Young Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated China's Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 to book a spot in the semi-finals of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament.
The 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa will take on Anish Giri from the Netherlands in the semis. World No 1 Magnus Carlsen will take on China's Ding Liren in the other semi-final.
Giri and Carlsen scored comfortable 2.5-0.5 wins over Aryan Tori (Norway) and David Anton Gujjaro (Spain), while Liren defeated Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2.5-1.5 in the quarter-finals.
In the quarter-finals against Yi late on Monday, the teenaged Indian star opened with a win with black pieces in 90 moves. He built on that 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. A draw in the fourth was enough for the Indian GM 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 Anish, Carlsen and Ding Liren.
The two other Indian players -- Pentala Harikrishna and Vidith Gujrathi -- in the 16-player field, finished outside the top 8 and failed to make the cut for the knockout bracket.
