India's Praggnanandhaa sails into semifinals of Chessable Masters

Praggnanandhaa defeated China's Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 to book a spot in the semifinals of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament. The 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa will take on Anish Giri (the Netherlands) in the semifinals. World No.

1 Magnus Carlsen will take on China's Ding Liren in the other semifinal clash. Giri and Carlsen scored comfortable 2.5-0.5 wins over Aryan Tori (Norway) and David Anton Gujjaro (Spain), while Liren defeated Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals. In the quarterfinals against Yi late on Monday, the teenaged Indian star opened with a win with black pieces in 90 moves.

He built on that fine start to take the second game of the four-game match to go 2-0 up. The Chinese star bounced back to claim the third game of the series to reduce the margin. A draw in the fourth was enough for the Indian GM to seal a spot in the semifinals.

Praggnanandhaa had created a stir earlier in the preliminary phase by beating Carlsen in the sixth round. He finished fourth behind Anish, Carlsen and Ding Liren. The two other Indian players -- P Harikrishna and Gujrathi in the 16-player field, finished outside the top 8 and failed to make the cut for the knockout bracket.