The 16-year-old Indian chess phenomenon finished second as he went down fighting to World no.2 Ding Liren in a tie-break of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 online tournament summit clash on Friday.
The Chennai-born chess prodigy toiled hard to win the second set after conceding in the opener but unfortunately lost the two-game blitz tie-breaker. The Indian GM, who had lost the first set 1.5-2.5, hit back to win the second 2.5-1.5 and force the blitz tie-break.
The 29-year old Liren used his experience to trump Praggnanandhaa in the second of the tie-break games. After the first blitz game ended in stalemate, the Chinese player won the next in 49 moves to dash the Indian teenager's hopes.
Earlier in the second set which he needed to win to force a tie-break, Praggnanandhaa got the all-important victory in the second game in 79 moves.
The next game saw the two dish out a 106-move draw before another stalemate meant the title would be decided by the tie-breaker.
After the final, the Indian prodigy's coach R B Ramesh praised his ward's efforts and said, "It’s really amazing, the way Praggnanandhaa handled the whole tournament. Really happy that he could go up to the finals and he came very close to winning the match. “He has to study for the exams and also prepare for this tournament which is very difficult to do it together. And he excelled in both, I am really happy about it".
At the same time, Ramesh RB also took to his Twitter handle and congratulated the World No. 2 for the hard-fought win, while complementing Praggnanandhaa for showing good nerves. “Congratulations Ding for beating both Pragg AND the mosquitoes! Proud of you @rpragchess, showed good nerves and character overall in tough situations,” he tweeted.
The Indian GM had defeated the highly-rated Dutchman Anish Giri in the semifinal to become the first Indian player to reach the final of a Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event. He had beaten world No.1 Magnus Carlsen for a second time during the preliminary phase in which he finished fourth and got past Wei Yi of China in the quarterfinals.
