 "Chess (#1203)")
R Praggnanandhaa is now the youngest International master in history. At ten years and ten months of age, the youngster from Chennai has just completed all requirements, with three successive IM norms and a rating of over 2400.
He logged his first IM norm at the Cannes Open in February. Then, in March, he took his second norm in Moscow at the Aeroflot Open. So "Praggu", as he's called, arrived at the KIIT Open in Bhubaneswar with two norms and a rating of 2368. At Bhubaneswar, he scored 5.5 in 9 rounds against strong opposition (including five GMs) to complete his third and final norm and push his rating above 2400.
The youngster has jumped a couple of levels in the past few months, given that streak where he's knocked off three IM norms in a row. He won the world Under-10 title in late 2015 and he is also the Asian U-12 champion. His elder sister, Vaishali is also a prodigy. She's a former world U-12 champion and an WIM at age 15, as well as being the youngest player in the 2016 Indian women's championship.
Meanwhile in Shamkir, Fabiano Caruana has set a scorching pace in the Third Gashimov Memorial. After six rounds, "Fab" leads with 5 points, including a streak of four wins in a row. Anish Giri is just behind at 4.5 while Sergey Karjakin also has a plus core at 3.5. Pentala Harikrishna shares fourth spot with Shakhriyar Mamedaryov (both 3) and the rest of the ten-person field has minus scores.
Caruana's running score puts him into #2 spot in the ratings with 2816 edging ahead of Kramnik (2812). Karjakin actually has the trickiest task at Baku in a technical sense. He has to do well and get practice ahead of the title match without giving away too much prep.
At the Asian Individual Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, Adhiban Baskaran shares the lead with Wei Yi and Le Quang Liem (all 5.5) after 7 rounds. Six players including Suryasekhar Ganguly and S P Sethuraman are sharing 4th-9th place with 5 each. It's still wide open with two rounds to go.
The diagram BLACK TO PLAY, ((White: Boris Kharchenko Vs R. Praggnanandhaa Aeroflot Open Moscow 2016 ) is from the last round of the Aeroflot. Praggu took his second IM norm by beating a GM in style.
Black is dominant with every piece lined up against the White kingside whereas white's Ra1, Nc5 are both out of play. But where's the finish? Black played 30...Rxf3! 31.Rxf3 Qxf3 32.Qf1 Qxg3! (0-1). It all seems obvious once played. Bang-bang down the long white diagonal on f3, g2. Nevertheless, it's impressive - GMs don't get butchered like this every day.
Devangshu Datta is an internationally rated chess and correspondence chess player
