Praggnanandhaa follows up win over Carlsen with 2 more victories in Airthings Masters

PTI, Feb 22, 2022, 10:22 AM IST

Credit: FirstPost

Continuing his good run, India’s teen prodigy R Praggnanandhaa registered wins against fellow Grandmasters Andrey Esipenko and Alexandra Kosteniuk in rounds 10 and 12 of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament.

A day after a stunning victory over world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, the 16-year old scored two wins and drew against Nodirbek Abdusattorov early on Tuesday. He, however, lost to Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 11th round.

Despite the twin victories and a draw, Praggnanandhaa is in 12th place with 15 points.

He beat the highly-rated Russian Esipenko in 42 moves after having started the day with a draw against Abdusattorov. After going down to Nepomniachtchi, he rallied to beat former women’s world champion Kosteniuk in a 63-move encounter.

Praggnanandhaa will be up against Vincent Keymer of Germany, USA’s Hans Moke Niemann, and Russian Vladislav Artemiev respectively in rounds 13, 14, and 15 later on Tuesday night. Nepomniachtchi, who lost the world championship match a few months ago to Carlsen, is on top of the standings with 27 points.

Carlsen bounced back from the loss to Praggnanandhaa with wins over Quang Liem Le and Jan Kryzstof Duda but suffered an unexpected reverse against Eric Hansen of Canada in 33 moves. He is in joint second place with 20 points along with Artemiev and Keymer. The top eight players after the preliminary rounds qualify for the knockout phase.

In the Airthings Masters, a 16-player online rapid tournament, a player gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. Seven more rounds remain in the preliminary phase.