Teen Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa registered superb victory over Vasyl Ivanchuk of Ukraine, Jan Kryzstof Duda of Poland and Boris Gelfand of Israel to get off to a flying start in the Julius Baer Generation online rapid tournament, the seventh leg of the $1.6 million Meltwater Champions Chess Tour here.
He however could not maintain his winning streak and lost to fellow teenager Christopher Yoo from New York. In the battle of generations, the Indian came up aces against the veteran Ivanchuk. The 17-year-old prodigy from Chennai was poised for the top spot but the loss against Yoo pulled him back in the joint second place alongside Ivanchuk, Hans Nieman and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi with nine points.
Arjun bounced back after losing to World Champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the opening round to beat countrymate Adhiban Baskaran, Liem Le of Vietnam and Czech Republic’s David Navara. Meanwhile, Carlsen is leading the pack with 10 points with three wins and one draw.