Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa with all his quick-wittedness, has vanquished Russia’s chess champion Vladislav Artemiev in the 15th and final round of the preliminary juncture of the Airthings Masters, which is an online rapid chess tournament. But, Prag missed to qualify for the quarterfinals unfortunately.
He began the last day of the preliminary rounds with a draw against German Vincent Keymer in 13th round before going down to Hans Mokko Neimann who belongs to USA. His spirited success over the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the 8th round led to a palpitation but win-lose dispatches set the 16-year-old back. With the top 8 going through to the knockout phase, he accomplished 11th in the standings and having 19 points in his kitty.
Totally, he scored 5 wins from 15 rounds, drew 4 games and lost 6. Over Carlsen, the victorious players are, Lev Aronian, Russian Andrey Esipenko, Keymer, Alexandria Kosteniuk, who is the former women’s world champion.
Meanwhile, Carlsen prevailed over a few downfalls to finish 2nd on 25 points, followed by Artemiev.
On the other hand, Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi achieved the preliminary stage with a maximum score of 29 points. Esipenko, Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Liem Quang Le and Keymer have winded up the top eight. A player attained 3 points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds, in the 16-player Airthings masters.