R. Praggnanandhaa scored the biggest victory of his promising career at the expense of World No. 2 Ding Liren and moved to joint third spot after four rounds of the prestigious Tata Steel Masters chess tournament at Wijk aan Zee, near Amsterdam, on Tuesday.
Praggnanandhaa, rated 2684 to Ding’s 2811, triumphed in 73 moves for his first victory over a player rated above the coveted mark of 2800, that too, with the black pieces.
The Indian youngster gained a miniscule but significant advantage by the 40th move and he gradually enlarged it over the next 33 moves to force his famed Chinese rival to resign.
Two other Indians in the field - Arjun Erigaisi and D. Gukesh - were involved in drawn encounters.
On a day when Anish Giri (3 points) stunned Magnus Carlsen in classical time control only for the second time in exactly 12 years, a victorious young Uzbek Nodirbek Abdusattarov joined him in the lead.
In the Challengers section, R. Vaishali crashed to her third successive defeat while B. Adhiban stretched his sequence of draws to four.
Fourth-round results (Indians unless stated):
Masters: Ding Liren (2) lost to R. Praggnanandhaa (2.5); Vincent Keymer (Ger, 1.5) drew with Arjun Erigaisi (2); Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 1.5) drew with D. Gukesh (1); Anish Giri (Ned, 3) bt Magnus Carlsen (2); Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 3) bt Parham Maghsoodloo (Iri, 1.5); Richard Rapport (Rom, 1.5) drew with Fabiano Caruana (USA, 2.5); Wesley So (USA, 2) drew with Levon Aronian (USA, 2).
Challengers: B. Adhiban (2) drew with Javokhir Sindarov (Uzb, 2.5); Velimir Ivic (Ser, 3) bt R. Vaishali (0.5); Mustafa Yilmaz (Tur, 3) bt Max Warmerdam (Ned, 2); Jergus Pechac (Slo, 0.5) lost to Alexander Donchenko (Ger, 3); Eline Roebers (Ned, 2) drew with Amin Tabatabaei (Iri, 2.5); Luis Supi (Bra, 2) drew with Thomas Beerdsen (Ned, 2); Abhimanyu Mishra (USA, 1.5) lost to Erwin L’Ami (Ned, 1.5).
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