16-year-old R Praggnanandhaa wins prestigious Reykjavik Open chess tournament

After stunning Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the Airthings Master, 16-year-old chess sensation R Pragganandhaa, on Tuesday, won the prestigious Reykjavik Open chess tournament. In the final played between two Indian players, it was R Praggnanandhaa who won the contest beating compatriot GM D Gukesh in the final round. The Indian youngster scored 7½/9 and finished a half-point ahead. 

The win gave Praggnanandhaa (ELO 2624)13.2 ELO points. Max Warmerdam, Mads Andersen, Hjörvar Steinn Grétarsson, and Abhimanyu Mishra finished a half-point behind and tied for the second place. Gukesh, who logged six points, finished 17th while GM Abhijeet Gupta took the eighth spot, securing 6.5 points.  The 2022 Reykjavik Open, a nine-round Swiss tournament with classical time control (90 min for 40 moves followed by 30 min to the end of the game, plus a 30-second increment starting from move one), took place at the Harpa Music and Conference hall from April 6-12.

R Praggnanandhaa wins Reykjavik Open chess tournament

R Praggnanandhaa managed to win the title by turning things around after his opponent blundered when he appeared to be losing. The youngster had an outstanding Reykjavik Open chess tournament in which he went unbeaten through the nine rounds and finished with wins over Matthieu Cornette (France) and Gukesh in the last two rounds. R 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.

R Pragganandhaa's journey in chess

Talking about R Pragganandhaa's chess career, the youngster became the fifth youngest player to become a Grandmaster. He first shot to fame after winning the World Youth Chess Championships Under-8 title in 2013, which earned him the FIDE Master title at the age of seven years old.

After winning the U-10 title in 2015, Praggnanandhaa went to become the youngest international master in 2016 at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days. He became the then second-youngest person ever to achieve the rank of grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days after defeating Luca Moroni in the eighth round of the Gredine Open in Urtijei in 2018.