In an all Indian battle, young Indian Chess champion, R Praggnanandhaa, edged past D Gukesh to win the prestigious Reykjavik Open Chess tournament.
After a two-year absence due to the worldwide pandemic, Reykjavik Open Chess tournament returned to the sporting calendar this year. Held for the 36th time, the tournament saw quite a few Indian players participating.
The 16-year-old Pragganandhaa remained unbeaten through the nine rounds and finished with wins over Matthieu Cornette (France) and Gukesh in the last two rounds. He accumulated a total of 7.5 points from nine rounds.
Praggnanandhaa also posted four other wins, including the one over American Abhimanyu Mishra, who last year became the then youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12 years and four months.
The Netherlands Grand Master Max Warmerdam took the second place and Mads Anderson of Denmark took the third place. Among the other Indians, Gukesh, who logged six points, finished 17th while GM Abhijeet Gupta took the eighth spot, securing 6.5 points. IM Tania Sachdev with 6 points claimed 21st spot while experienced GM B Adibhan scored 5.5 points and settled for 34th place.
Praggnanandhaa had recently hogged the limelight after stunning world No.1 Magnus Carlsen in an online tournament.
