Teen sensation R Praggnanandhaa will enter as the favourite among the three Indian participants in the Candidates chess tournament that will get underway in Toronto from Wednesday to decide the challenger for the next world championship match.
After a win over Hikaru Nakamura in his opener, the Norwegian went down to Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi in the second round. A draw with Wesley So in the third left the world no.1 in fifth spot.
Praggnanandhaa is on top of the standings with nine match points along with world No 1 Magnus Carlsen
Young Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh finished fifth while his illustrious compatriot Viswanathan Anand could only manage a tied seventh place in the third leg of the 2023 SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament.
Alireza Firouzja remained in joint lead with Caruana on 5.5 points and these two are now ahead of Wesley So of United States and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa went down to Poland's Jan-Krzystof Duda via the tie-break in the sixth round of the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of Champions Chess Tour, in Miami, on Sunday.
Praggnanandhaa edged out his Dutch opponent in 81 moves in the fourth game after the first three ended in draws.
News of all people and events who made news on Saturday.
Anand played the Italian game with white pieces but could get little out of opening against Vituigov.
In the women's event, India's D Harika drew with Nino Bastiashvili (Georgia) to move up to four points. She is in joint third place with six others.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
Vidit Gujrathi crashed through the defences of Hans Moke Niemann of the United States to join the leaders' pack on 4.5 points.
Fabiano Caruana of United States made sure of his maiden title after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand gave a fine endgame lesson to young Alireza Firouzja, jumping to joint sixth position at the end of 11th round of Tata Steel Masters, in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands, on Saturday. With his second victory, Anand clawed his way back to a fifty percent score and will now hope to end the tournament on a high. At just 16 years, Firouzja is less than one third of Anand's age, and the Indian ace showed that the Iranian still has a lot to learn.
India's Dronavalli Harika defeated former world champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria in the third round of the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament in Riga to grab a share of the lead.
It was on move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw.
Indian players experienced mixed fortunes in the second round of the FIDE Grand Swiss chess tournament here with two each in the men's and women's sections registering victories.
While Vaishali got the better of Ukraine's Inna Gopanenko in round eight, Rout defeated Russia's Baira Kovanova.
India went down to Rest of the World 1.5-2.5 in the second round of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup. Earlier in the opening round, India split points with USA with Humpy posting a win over Anna Zatonkish while the legendary Anand drew with the highly-rated Hikaru Nakamura.
Anand, as white, had simply an extra pawn and this is where the tenacity of Carlsen came to fore.
Carlsen had previously indicated he would not consider the record truly broken until after two more games as he was not prepared to count two wins he had in the Norwegian league.
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
The Indian team includes country's number two Vidit Gujrathi, P Harikrishna and Koneru Humpy. B Adhiban and D Harika are the the reserves members. The field for the event includes six former world champions, plus 12 others who have been Candidates to the throne at some point.
Sankalp Gupta becomes India's 71st GM.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Friday.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand will lead India's charge at the online Nations Cup beginning on Tuesday, where some of the world's best players will face off amid the coronavirus pandemic which has thrown the sporting calendars out of gear. The six-team event, touted to the richest online team tournament, features all the big names in the game with World champion Magnus Carlsen being the only big gun missing from the line-up.
At 12 years, seven months and 17 days, Dommaraju Gukesh is the second youngest Grandmaster of all time.
'It was a big relief to get it out of the way. Now he can concentrate on future progress.'
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