Historic! R Praggnanandhaa becomes new World No. 3 after beating D Gukesh at Sinquefield Cup chess tournament
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Louis.
With this victory, the 20-year-old Grandmaster moved up to a live rating of 2784.1 points. Only
(2839) and Hikaru Nakamura (2807) are ahead of him, while he now sits among the sport's true elite.
Praggnanandhaa also shares the tournament lead with American veteran Levon Aronian, who outwitted Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
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The remaining first-round matches saw Fabiano Caruana draw with Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Samuel Sevian split the point with Wesley So, and French stars Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Alireza Firouzja cancel each other out.
The Sinquefield Cup, featuring a prize pool of USD 350,000, still has eight rounds left. At this stage, six players are tied just behind Praggnanandhaa and Aronian, while Gukesh and Abdusattorov are yet to open their accounts.
The clash between the two young Indian superstars drew special attention. Gukesh, with the black pieces, chose the Queen's Gambit Accepted, but his early queen exchange left him on the back foot.
Spending significant time in a familiar position, he slipped into a dubious structure.
Praggnanandhaa capitalised with the bishop pair, gained a clear advantage, and pressed relentlessly. As Gukesh's clock dwindled, mistakes crept in, and Praggnanandhaa forced a pawn win before converting smoothly in just 36 moves.
"I don't really know what happened today. I think he was a bit off," said Praggnanandhaa after the match.
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The win also balanced their classical head-to-head record. "Last year, I messed up some good positions against him, I think I did not beat him (in classical) for almost two years now, so finally it's good to get a win," he noted.
With momentum on his side, Praggnanandhaa now stands on the cusp of making Indian chess history.
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