Gibraltar Masters: Praggnanandhaa defeats Gopal

Keeps his chances of a second GM-norm alive.

R. Praggnanandhaa has five points after seven rounds.

Teen-prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa outplayed Grandmaster G. N. Gopal to keep alive his chances of a second GM-norm after reaching five points from seven rounds of the Tradewise Gibraltar Masters chess tournament here on Monday.

On a day when P. Hari Krishna and Sandipan Chanda lost, another teenager Prithu Gupta (4.5) stayed on course of a maiden GM-norm by drawing with Argentine GM Ponsa Federico Perez. With three rounds to go, USA’s Hikaru Nakamura and England’s David Howell shared the lead at six points.

• Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 5.5) bt Sandipan Chanda (5); David Navara (Cze, 5) drew with Abhijeet Gupta (5); P. Hari Krishna (4.5) lost to Grigoriy Oparin (Rus, 5.5); Varuzhan Akobian (USA, 5) bt Shardul Gagare (4); Luca Moroni Jr. (Ita, 4) lost to S. P. Sethuraman (5); Swapnil Dhopade (4.5) drew with Falko Bindrich (Ger, 4.5); Rasmus Svane (Ger, 4.5) drew with Debashis Das (4.5); R. Praggnanandhaa (5) bt G. N. Gopal (4); Dinara Saduakassova (Kaz, 4) lost to S. L. Narayanan (5); Ponsa Federico Perez (Arg, 4.5) drew with Prithu Gupta (4.5); M. R. Venkatesh (4.5) bt Tamas Banusz (Hun, 3.5).