Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa held fancied American participant Fabiano Caruana to a draw within the first recreation of the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup chess event in Baku, Azerbaijan on Saturday. The 17-year outdated Praggnanandhaa waged a gritty battle towards the American to share the honours in 78 strikes. Having drawn Saturday’s encounter with black items, the Indian GM now has the benefit of taking part in with white on Sunday. Meanwhile, world no.1 Magnus Carlsen took a giant step in the direction of the ultimate by beating native favourite Nijat Abasov in recreation 1 of the two-game classical sequence.

By changing into solely the second Indian after legendary Vishwanathan Anand to achieve the semifinals of the World Cup, Praggnanandhaa booked a spot within the Candidates occasion in 2024 to find out the challenger to Ding Liren.

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