World Junior Chess C’ship: Praggnanandhaa stuns top seed

R. Praggnanandhaa, rated 2509 and seeded a distant 26th in a strong field, produced a flawless display over 44 moves to defeat the favourite rated 2616!

With the win, R. Praggnanandhaa possesses 3.5 points in the tourney.

Prodigious talent R. Praggnanandhaa, 12, stunned top seeded Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest to move to the joint second spot in the World junior (Under-20) chess championship here on Thursday.

Second round report: Five Indians among leaders

Praggnanandhaa, rated 2509 and seeded a distant 26th in a strong field, produced a flawless display over 44 moves to defeat the favourite rated 2616!

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Though Harsha Bharathakoti, one of the overnight leaders, lost, two-time National champion M. Karthikeyan joined Praggnanandhaa at 3.5 points. Aravindh Chithambaram scored his third successive victory to match S. L. Narayanan’s tally of three points.

Russian duo of Kirill Alekseeno and Aleksey Sorokin share the lead with four points, half a point ahead of nine players.