Making Chessable Masters final was unexpected: Praggnanandhaa
Praggnanandhaa is making it a habit of beating the top players in the circuit. Days after defeating world champion Magnus Carlsen during a preliminary stage clash of the ongoing Chessable Masters, an online tournament, Praggu beat Anish Giri to make the final of the competition on Tuesday night. The Anish-Praggu match ended 2-2 after the 4-game rapid match and the 16-year-old won the tie-breaker 1.5-0.5 to book his place in the summit clash.
Praggu faces World no. 2 Ding Liren who defeated Magnus 2.5-1.5 in the other semifinal. Praggu, who wrapped things up at around 2 am on Wednesday morning, had very little time to celebrate his win.
“There was very little time to reflect on the win. I hardly slept for about 4 hours as I had to wake up early and go for my class XI exams at 8.45am. I had my commerce paper and have managed to do well,” Praggu told TOI.
After their opening encounter ended in a draw, Praggu’s match with Anish picked up steam in Game 2. Praggu set Anish a trap in the endgame to take the lead. The subsequent clash saw fortunes shift from one player to another.
Praggu managed to stay strong and force a draw. It was in Game 4 when Anish turned the things in his favour to not only win that game but take the clash into the tie-breaks. In the tie-breaks, Anish erred in the opening blitz game and soon resigned to hand Praggu the much-needed advantage.
Praggu, in the next blitz game, only needed a draw to win the match. The young gun did just that. “The win against Anish is very satisfying because he had come to this match unbeaten in the tournament.