Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa continued his rich vein of form to reach to reach the semi-finals of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters 2022 event.

The 16-year-old beat World No 22 Wei Yi of China 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals, and will now take on Dutch GM Anish Giri for a spot in the final in the online tournament. In the four games of the quarterfinal, Pragg – as he is known on the circuit – won the first two games to up 2-0. Then Wei came back with a win in the third, but with a draw in the final game, the Indian made it to the final four.

You can watch Pragg’s quarterfinals in this video (the fourth game being the final match of the day):

On Monday, he pulled off another upset win at the tournament. In the four-match tie, Pragg took the lead with the black in 90 moves before doubling it after the second game. Yi did win the third, but was held in a draw to take the Indian through to the semi-final.

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Incidentally, Pragg is competing in this tournament that is taking place during his Class XI examinations.

“Fortunately for me, I have study breaks during exams, I’m using them to play this tournament,” he had said.

The win comes just days after Pragg – as he is often called – beat World No 1 Magnus Carlsen for the second time in three months, in the preliminary round of the event.

“To be honest, I’m not so thrilled about my game quality. It felt like I was missing some stuff. Some tricks, some tactics at times,” he told Chess 24 after the win over Carlsen.

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“I did not want to win that way. He just blundered in a move. I think otherwise it should have been a draw.”

There’s a possibility that Pragg might set-up another clash against Carlsen. The World Champion from Norway is in the other semi-final, where he takes on China’s Ding Liren.

In Warsaw, Viswanathan Anand had clinched the rapid title in the Superbet Rapid and Blitz Poland chess tournament, doing so with a round to spare. In the blitz section, he finished joint second.