Norway Chess: Praggnanandhaa Stuns World No.2, Enters Top 10 World Ranking

Stavanger: Indian chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa defeated world no. 2 Fabiano Caruana in the fifth round of the Norway Chess tournament to climb into the top 10 of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) world rankings. With this win, Praggnanandhaa remained at third spot in the tournament with 8.5 points. The defeat also put Caruana drop to third in world rankings. Hikaru Nakamura of the United States got the better of off-colour world champion Ding Liren of China to stretch his lead to a full point over Magnus Carlsen of Norway.

With 10 points in his bag, Nakamura has a full point lead over Carlsen at the half way stage of this USD 161000 prize money tournament. Carlsen outwitted Firouzja Alireza of France from a drawn rook and pawns endgame. With five rounds still to come, the world number one is followed by Praggnanandhaa while a distant fourth now is Alireza who remained on 6.5 following his loss. Caruana on five is in fifth spot while Ding Liren is clearly not enjoying the event with just 2.5 points to his credit.

“PRAGG IS BACK!! Young prodigy Praggnanandhaa stuns the chess world again by defeating World No.2 Fabiano Caruana in Round 5! After toppling World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in Round 3, he’s now beaten the top two players in classical chess for the first time ever, rocketing into the top 10!,” Norway Chess posted on ‘X’