Teen Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi eked out a narrow victory over USA’s Christopher Yoo in the quarterfinals to reach the semi-finals of the Julius Baer Generation Cup online rapid chess tournament on Friday.
Erigaisi locked in a battle with the 15-year-old Yoo clinching the victory in the tie-breaker to advance into the last four round of the tournament.
Starting the high-octane clash, it was the Indian who won the opening game but lost the next one. He then won the third one before losing the fourth to go into the tie-breaker.
However, in the blitz tie-break Erigaisi showed his class to win the first game and drew the second one to seal his spot in the next round.
Meanwhile, his compatriot R Praggnanandhaa, could not make it further into the tournament as he lost 1-3 to Germany’s Vincent Keymer.
Praggnanandhaa did not have the best of the starts in the quarterfinals and suffered a loss in the opening game. He drew the next two to stay in the hunt. The 17-year-old needing a win in the fourth game to take the encounter into the tie-break however suffered a 42-move defeat to bow out of the event.
Arjun would now take on Liem Quang Le of Vietnam in the semis who beat Hans Niemann of USA, while World champion Magnus Carlsen would face Keymer in the other last four duel. Carlsen, who had lost just once in the entire preliminary round, beat America’s Levon Aronian in the last eight round.