Praggnanandhaa beats Carlsen but remains third in Superbet chess

NEW DELHI: Indian chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa secured another win against world number one Magnus Carlsen from Norway in the Superbet rapid and blitz chess tournament, part of the Grand Chess Tour. However, China's Wei Yi has taken a commanding lead, accumulating 20.5 points with seven wins on the first day of blitz.

With nine rounds remaining, Yi appears unstoppable and is likely to clinch the title in the first leg of the Grand Chess Tour, unless he faces a significant setback. Despite Praggnanandhaa's recent successes against Carlsen in the faster format, he trails the leaders with 14.5 points, making the tournament a two-horse race between Yi and Carlsen, who sits in second place with 18 points.

India's Arjun Erigaisi holds the fourth position with 14 points, followed closely by Poland's Duda Jan-Krzysztof with 13 points. Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov is in sixth place with 12.5 points, while Germany's Vincent Keymer and Romania's Kirill Shevchenko occupy the seventh and eighth spots, respectively.

Anish Giri of the Netherlands showed slight improvement, securing the ninth position with 10.5 points. However, world championship challenger D. Gukesh of India struggled in the blitz format, finding himself at the bottom of the standings with 9.5 points in the USD 1,75,000 prize money tournament. Carlsen admitted that his "nervous system had collapsed" following his second-round loss to Praggnanandhaa.

Despite ending the day with a respectable six points out of nine, the world number one committed another blunder against Abdusattorov, losing from a winning position.