Champions Chess Tour: Praggnanandhaa beats World No. 1 Junior Player Firouzja

Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated world number one junior player Alireza Firouzja yesterday in the third game of their four-game match in the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale

Indian chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated world number one junior player Alireza Firouzja yesterday in the third game of their four-game match in the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of the Champions Chess Tour.

The Indian Grandmaster from Chennai won the opening-round match by 2.5-1.5 on Sunday night in Miami, the tour’s first offline event.

The 17-year-old hotshot got off to the greatest possible start in the battle of the prodigies, winning the first game by seizing on a little mistake by the the Iranian French Grandmaster Alireza Firouzja.

Praggnanandhaa followed up Firouzja’s pawn push (21… c5) by taking it (22. cxd5) and then made a brilliant rook move (23. Racl) to set up tactics in his favour.

He capitalised on the minor tactical advantage to secure the victory.

Praggnanandhaa looked lost in the third game, but unexpectedly turned things around and scored an incredible second win to go up 2-1.

Pragg closed out the draw he needed in the fourth and final game of the tie to take the 3 points and continue his incredible form in Meltwater Champions Chess Tour events.

He finished second to China’s Ding Liren in the inaugural event of the hybrid series.

R Praggnanandhaa today took to Twitter to celebrate his victory over world number four Alireza Firouzja, noting that he had a good start against Firouzja with a score of 2.5-1.5.

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