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What's the story?
Remember the name, R Praggnanandhaa! The Chennai-born chess prodigy is currently participating in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament and on Wednesday, he defeated British Grandmaster David Howell to move to joint third position in the overall standing.
What made this feat even more mind-numbing is the fact that Howell is more than twice his senior and has an ELO rating of 2701.
In case you didn't know
International Master R Praggnanandhaa is the world's youngest IM. The Indian boy has an impressive ELO rating of 2500 and this was his third win in five rounds after drawing once and being defeated once.
He was the Under-8 boys champion in the World Youth Chess Championship, a tournament he won in 2013. He is also the Under-10 boys champion from the same tournament from 2015.
The heart of the matter
Praggnanandhaa forced three-time champion Howell to admit defeat after just 64 moves. His feat drew adulation from across the world, with the legendary Susan Polgar also tweeting about his excellent result.
Meanwhile, another Indian GM SP Sethuraman moved into the joint second position after besting GM Boris Gelfand of Israel in 52 moves.
Viswanathan Anand, on the other hand, had drawn against Nils Grandelius from Sweden. Vidit Gujrathi opted for a quick draw against USA's Aleksandr Lenderman as he failed to break the American GM's defence. In other news, World Champion Magnus Carlsen and Ukraine’s Pavel Eljanov hold the joint top spot after winning their respective matches.
Unfortunately, in the women's draw, India’s top female player GM D Harika lost her second consecutive match on Wednesday. The three-time World Cup bronze medallist, playing with white, lost to Women Grandmaster Anna Rudolf of Hungary after making a couple of errors from a rather comfortable position.
What's next?
Without a doubt, Praggnanandhaa is a rising star in the chess medium. At just 12 years old, he has already established himself as a giant killer. He will look to quickly pick up the required GM norms and with time on his side, he could become the world's youngest Grandmaster.
Sportskeeda's Take
Praggnanandhaa has his whole career ahead of him and he will surely succeed in the game of chess. Who knows, maybe he could be the next Viswanathan Anand!
