R Praggnanandhaa won Norway chess Open title
India's 16-year-old Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa emerged victorius in the Norway Chess Group A open chess tournament on friday.
He scored 7.5 points from nine rounds.
His form was praise-worthy form and he remained unbeaten through the nine rounds. He finished with a win V Praneeth, his fellow Indian player.
Praggnanandhaa finished a full point ahead of second-placed IM Marsel Efroimski and IM Jung Min Seo.
Praneeth with six points was joint third but was placed sixth due to an inferior tie-break score.
Apart from beating Praneeth, Praggnanandhaa posted wins over Victor Mikhalevski, Vitaly Kunin, Mukhammadzokhid Suyarov, Semen Mutusov and Mathias Unneland.
the other three games ended in a draw.
The Indian teenager has been putting in impressive performances in recent times and had beaten world number one Magnus Carlsen for a second time in the Chessable Master online event and lost a close final to China's Ding Liren.
He will be part of the India B team in the open event of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai next month.
Praggnanandhaa's coach R B Ramesh congratulated him after the win.
"Congratulations to him for the victory. He was the top seed, so it is not a surprise that he won the tournament. He played well in general, drew three games with black pieces and won the remaining games. It will help boost his confidence," Ramesh said.
(Inputs from PTI)
