Prodigious talent R. Praggnanandhaa, 12, stunned top-seeded Dutch Grandmaster Jorden van Foreest to move to the joint second spot in the World junior (under-20) chess championship here on Thursday.
Flawless display
Praggnanandhaa, rated 2509 and seeded a distant 26th in a strong field, produced a flawless display over 44 moves to defeat the favourite rated 2616.
Though Harsha Bharathakoti, one of the overnight leaders lost, two-time National champion M. Karthikeyan joined Praggnanandhaa at 3.5 points.
Third win for Aravindh
Aravindh Chithambaram scored his third successive victory to match S. L. Narayanan’s tally of three points.
Russian duo of Kirill Alekseeno and Aleksey Sorokin share the lead with four points, half a point ahead of nine players.
The results (fourth round), Indians unless stated:
Open: Harsha Bharathakoti (3) lost to Aleksey Sorokin (Rus, 4); R. Praggnanandhaa (3.5) bt Jorden van Foreest (Ned, 2.5); S.L. Narayanan (3) drew with Semen Lomasov (Rus, 3).
M. Karthikeyan (3.5) bt Luca Moroni Jr (Ita, 2.5); Sanchez Jorge Marcos Gomez (Cub, 2) lost to Aravindh Chithambaram (3).
Liu Yan (Chn, 3) bt Vaibhav Suri (2); Franco Villegas (Arg, 2) lost to Shardul Gagare (3); Li Di (Chn, 3) bt Mohammad Nubaishah Shaikh (2); Krishna Teja (2.5) bt Vahap Sanal (Tur, 1.5); Sumiya Bilguun (Mgl, 2.5) bt Raunak Sadhwani (1.5).
Bayaraa Chinguun (Mgl, 1.5) lost to Sidhant Mohapatra (2.5); Rowan Willathagamuwa (Aus, 1) lost to Kumar Gaurav (2); Tarini Goyal (1) bt Joao Nuno Baptista Valente (Por, 0).
Girls: Aakanksha Hagawane (3) drew with Polina Shuvalova (Rus, 3); R. Vaishali (2.5) drew with Pratyusha Bodda (2.5); Dinara Dordzhieva (Rus, 3) bt Parnali Dharia (2).
Nazerke Nurgali (Kaz, 2.5) drew with Arpita Mukherjee (2.5); G. Lasya (2) drew with Viktoria Chernyak (Rus, 2).
M. Mahalakshmi (1.5) lost to K. Priyanka (2.5); Rutumbara Bidhar (2) bt Saina Salonika (1).
