Daily GK (General Knowledge)

R Praggnanandhaa beat Arjun Erigaisi on Thursday (17th August 2023) to become the first Indian since Viswanathan Anand in 2002 to reach the semifinals of a Chess World Cup.

Praggnanandhaa, the 18-year-old from Chennai, beat his compatriot in sudden death after the tie-breaker turned into a series of seemingly interminable draws after the two classical games had failed to throw up a winner earlier this week.

Praggnanandhaa will now face American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana, the third seed, in the semifinals of the 2023 FIDE Chess World Cup quarterfinals in Baku, Azerbaijan.

Top seed Magnus Carlsen will be in the other semifinal. Earlier in the tournament, second seed Hiraku Nakamura had been eliminated by Praggnanandhaa himself.

No Indian had reached the last four stage of the FIDE World Cup since Viswanathan Anand won the first two editions of the tournament in 2000 and 2002.

A very exciting quarterfinal match between Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi finally concludes, after 7 tiebreak games, with Praggnanandhaa emerging as the winner and moving on to face Fabiano Caruana in the semifinals. #FIDEWorldCup

📷 Stev Bonhage pic.twitter.com/DBPGbPSyBa

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 17, 2023

The 2023 FIDE World Cup has been a special one for India, even for reasons other than Pragg's semifinal entry. There were three Indian Grandmasters who lost in the quarterfinals, as India became the first country other than Russia to have four GMs in the last four of a single edition of the World Cup. Gukesh lost his quarterfinal to Magnus Carlsen and Vidit Gujrathi lost to Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov..

Source : The Bridge