Brazilian Fabio Lima strikes twice in Dubai club's emphatic 4-0 victory at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
sports1 day ago
Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, secured a place in the final of the FIDE World Cup 2023 after beating USA's Fabiano Caruana, 31, in what was an action-packed semi-finals on Monday.
The final of the mega chess tournament will be played on Tuesday in Baku, Azerbaijan. R Praggnanandhaa will face World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen, who is 32.
During the semi-final clash, R Praggnanandhaa stunned the world number 3, Caruana, after the two-game series ended at 1-1 in Baku. The chess prodigy registered victory after an entertaining tie-breaker. He shocked Caruana 3.5-2.5 via the tie-break.
With that, R Praggnanandhaa became the only second Indian, after the legendary Viswanathan Anand, to enter the summit clash of the FIDE World Cup.
After his stellar victory in the semi-finals, R Praggnanandhaa told the Indian news agency PTI, “I didn’t expect to play Magnus in this tournament at all because the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn’t expect to be in the final. I will just try to give my best and see how it goes. It feels really good to qualify for the Candidates; I really wanted to fix this spot.”
Meanwhile, Carlsen defeated Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov 1.5-0.5 in his semi-final match.
R Praggnanandhaa was hailed by none other than the Indian chess legend himself.
In June 2018, the Indian wonder kid became a 'Grandmaster', the highest title a chess player can claim, at the age of 12 years and 10 months.
R Praggnanandhaa scripted history by becoming the youngest Grandmaster in the history of Indian chess. Overall, he was the world’s second youngest Grandmaster to achieve this incredible feat.
Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin holds the record for being the youngest Grandmaster. Karjakin set the record back in 2002 when he was 12 years and seven months old.
After the World Cup, the Indian prodigy is aiming to make waves at the Candidates event next year. The showpiece event will identify the challenger for the reigning World Chess Champion, Ding Liren.
R Praggnanandhaa is the third player to qualify for the Candidates tournament, after Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.
ALSO READ:
Brazilian Fabio Lima strikes twice in Dubai club's emphatic 4-0 victory at the Hazza Bin Zayed Stadium in Al Ain
sports1 day ago
Jon Rahm, Wyndham Clark, Phil Mickelson and Tiger Woods were among the stars packing their golf bags and leaving the famed Kentucky course after a testing second round on Friday
sports1 day ago
Top players can compartmentalize their lives, shut out all other outside distractions and can just focus on their game, says renowned golf coach Peter Cowen
sports1 day ago
The maverick West Indies' wicketkeeper-batsman hit eight sixes in his 29-ball 75 to set-up a comfortable win over the pre-tournament favourites
sports1 day ago
Bengaluru needs to win the match by at least 18 runs if they score a minimum of 200 runs batting first or win in 18.1 overs if they are chasing 200
sports1 day ago
The American is faces four criminal charges with assault of a police officer, criminal mischief, reckless driving and disregarding signals from an officer directing traffic
sports2 days ago
It is the first meeting between the world No.1 and No.2 in the tournament's history with a winner's purse of €699,690 at stake
sports2 days ago
'Let your hands talk in the ring. I am excited … let’s make history., said the Ukrainian Usyk after the official weight-in where the Briton avoided eye-contact with his opponent
sports2 days ago