Pragg stIngs Ding!

India teen star beats world champion in Armageddon; sister Vaishali loses

Round 7 of the Norway Chess tournament witnessed gripping matches with tense moments that significantly impacted the standings as India’s prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, 18, scored another upset by defeating world champion Ding Liren in the armageddon game and, Magnus Carlsen lost his armageddon game against Hikaru Nakamura on time. 

One of the highlights of the day was the match between Koneru Humpy and Vaishali R as Humpy scored the only classical victory of the day in both tournaments. With this loss, the former tournament leader Vaishali’s winning chances have significantly decreased. 

Ding Liren 

World champion Liren, who has been underperforming with four losses in a row, finally stopped the bleeding with a much-needed draw against India’s Praggnanandhaa. 

However, he missed a trick and lost the armageddon tie-breaker, with Pragg remaining on the third spot of the standings (11 points). In the highly anticipated game between Carlsen and Nakamura, the classical game ended in a draw relatively quickly, as both sides avoided complicated positions. 

The armageddon tie-break was one of the most intense games, as Nakamura won when Carlsen’s time ran out on the clock. This win brought Nakamura within half a point of Carlsen, who is leading the tournament with 13 points. 

GM Erigaisi breaks into Top 5 of FIDE ranking

Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi’s strong showing in the French Team Chess Championship has helped him reach the fifth spot in the FIDE standings, making him the highest ranked Indian by live rating.

Arjun, with a ELO rating of 2769.7, has so far added 8.7 points to his tally, behind Magnus Carlsen of Norway, USA’s Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.

He had briefly reached a career-high live rating of 2771.2 earlier this week and is the only Indian since Vishwanathan Anand to do so.

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