Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals: Praggnanandhaa, Arjun lose again

While R. Praggnanandhaa slipped to a heart-breaking loss to Anish Giri, Arjun Erigaisi fell to Magnus Carlsen.

Praggnanandhaa lost to Anish Giri, despite taking a 2-0 lead over the Dutch Grandmaster after the first two rapid games. (FILE PHOTO) | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ

From the threshold of victory, R. Praggnanandhaa slipped to a heart-breaking loss to Anish Giri after Magnus Carlsen continued his domination of Arjun Erigaisi in the second round of the $210,000 Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Finals on Tuesday.

Praggnanandhaa took a 2-0 lead over the Dutch Grandmaster in their four-game rapid clash. Thereafter, Anish bounced right back to make it 2-2 and won the first game of blitz to lead for the first time in the match and gained the much-needed draw in the second blitz game for a 3.5-2.5 triumph.

Earlier, Carlsen (Norway) won two games with black pieces and in between drew with black for a resounding 2.5-0.5 victory over Arjun.

In the other two matches, Liem Le Quang (Vietnam) dismissed Wesley So (US) 2.5-0.5 and Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland) defeated Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan) 2.5-1.5.