R Pragyanand wins Norway Chess Open title
India’s 16-year-old Grandmaster R Pragyanand emerged victorious in the Norway Chess Group A open chess tournament on Friday.
He scored 7.5 points from nine rounds.
His form was praiseworthy and he remained unbeaten for nine rounds. He led his fellow Indian player V Praneeth to victory.
Pragyananand finished a full point ahead of second-placed IM Marcel Efroimsky and IM Jung Min Seo.
Praneeth was tied third with six points but was placed sixth due to a low tie-break score.
Apart from defeating Praneeth, Pragyanand registered victories over Viktor Mikhalevsky, Vitaly Kunin, Mukhamadzokhid Suyarov, Semen Mutusov and Mathias Unneland.
The other three games ended in draws.
The Indian teenager has shown impressive performances in the recent past, beating world number one Magnus Carlsen for the second time in the Chess Master online event and a close final loss to China’s Ding Liren.
He will be part of the India B team in the open event of the 44th Chess Olympiad to be held in Chennai next month.
Pragnananda’s coach RB Ramesh congratulated him after the win.
“Congratulations on him for the win. He was the top seed, so it’s no surprise that he won the tournament. He played normally well, drawing three games with the black pieces and winning the remaining games. This boosted his confidence. It will help in increasing it.” Ramesh said.
(Inputs from PTI)