Praggnanandhaa joint first at the Gredine Open, Vaishali scores her second WGM norm!

by Sagar Shah - 25/06/2018

Usually when a player makes a norm with one round to spare, he more often than not loses the last round. This is because he is happy with his/her achievement and is in a relaxed state of mind. But for little Pragg, becoming the second youngest GM in the history of the game was not enough. He also wanted to win the 4th Gredine Open. He played an excellent game to beat his last round opponent GM Roeland Pruijssers, after the Dutch GM made a mistake in the opening. The other good news for Indian fans was Vaishali making her second WGM norm and gaining 27 Elo points. Illustrated report with game analysis and pictures.

They were together in 2006 when Pragg was just one year old and Vaishali was five | Photo: Archives of Praggnanandhaa

They were together in the year 2014 in the World Juniors in Pune! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

They were together in the year 2016 at the Aeroflot Open in Moscow | Photo: Amruta Mokal

They were together at the World Youth Olympiad in Ahmedabad in 2017 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

While all of these above pictures are special and memorable, I think the most indelible moment for the family would surely be this one:

Praggnanandhaa receives his third GM norm while Vaishali gets her second WGM norm at the Gredine Open 2018 in Ortisei, Italy. When was the last time you saw siblings holding norm certificates at the end of a chess tournament! | Photo: Official website

Praggnanandhaa's third GM norm that made him the second youngest GM in the history of the game! A performance of 2710! (You require 2600+ performance to make a GM norm)

Vaishali's second WGM norm. She was very close to an IM norm as well. For a WGM norm you need a performance of 2400, while for an IM norm it is 2450. Vaishali was in the middle with 2425! If she would have drawn her last round, she would have made her maiden IM norm.

Pragg's last round win over Roeland Pruijssers!

When we got to know the news that Pragg had already made his GM norm after he was paired against an opponent above the rating of 2482 in the last round the entire country rejoiced. Little Praggu had become the second youngest GM in the history of the game. But it was then that the head of ChessBase India Power asked a pertinent question on Facebook:

Ankit's question was what if GM Roeland Pruijssers Praggnanandhaa's last round opponent didn't turn up to the game?

Roeland made sure that the entire national would not get to sleep in peace!

IA Alberto Muniz Pardino was quick to clear the doubts which helped everyone to have a sound sleep!

The last round game between Roeland Pruijssers and Praggnanandhaa began early in the morning at 9.30 a.m. Italy time.

It was early in the morning, but Pragg was out there for the kill | Photo: Official website

The move c3 by Roeland opened the can of worms. Pragg chose the sharp line by taking on e4 with his knight

In this position Pruijssers went wrong with Bb3. The only way to keep the balance was to play c4.

Pragg got a better position with an extra pawn, but it was not so easy to convert.

Roeland blunders big time by moving his rook to e3. Can you see how Black wins?

Ivan Saric also won his game with the black pieces against Francesco Sonis to move to 7.5/9 and tie for the spot with Pragg. His tiebreak was better and Saric took home the first place. | Photo: Official website

Final rankings:

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	Rp
1	1	GM	Saric Ivan		CRO	2685	7,5	48,5	52,5	2418	2691
2	6	IM	Praggnanandhaa R	U18	IND	2529	7,5	47,5	51,0	2432	2705
3	4	GM	Tarlev Konstantin		UKR	2552	7,0	46,0	49,0	2400	2620
4	3	GM	Santos Latasa Jaime		ESP	2567	6,5	49,5	53,5	2456	2622
5	2	GM	Vocaturo Daniele		ITA	2608	6,5	46,0	48,5	2391	2557
6	21	IM	Sarkar Justin		USA	2297	6,5	38,5	41,5	2289	2455
7	8	GM	Pruijssers Roeland		NED	2514	6,0	48,5	53,5	2382	2507
8	10	IM	Gholami Aryan	U18	IRI	2490	6,0	47,0	51,0	2369	2494
9	7	GM	Kveinys Aloyzas		LTU	2519	6,0	46,0	50,5	2375	2500
10	13	IM	Sonis Francesco	U18	ITA	2448	6,0	45,5	49,5	2382	2507
11	16	IM	Borgo Giulio		ITA	2397	6,0	41,5	45,5	2282	2407
12	11	IM	Tan Justin		AUS	2484	6,0	40,5	44,5	2253	2378
13	9	GM	Kindermann Stefan		AUT	2506	5,5	46,5	50,5	2359	2439
14	5	GM	Moroni Luca Jr		ITA	2549	5,5	46,0	50,0	2392	2472
15	20	WIM	Vaishali R	U18	IND	2310	5,5	43,5	46,5	2345	2425
16	19	GM	Hecht Hans-Joachim	S65	GER	2327	5,5	43,0	46,0	2277	2357
17	17	FM	Herzog Adolf	S65	AUT	2344	5,5	39,5	43,0	2187	2267
18	48		Wecker Martin		GER	2143	5,5	38,0	41,5	2191	2271
19	22	FM	Kumar Nikhil	U18	USA	2286	5,0	45,0	48,0	2365	2408
20	12	GM	Jaracz Pawel		POL	2467	5,0	43,5	47,5	2283	2326

The top three finishers of the tournament: 1st: Ivan Saric, 2nd: Praggnanandhaa, 3rd: Konstantin Tarlev with the tournament director Ruben Bernardi | Photo: Official website

Everyone wants a picture with the champ! IA Gerhard Bertagnolli, the chief arbiter with Pragg | Photo: Official website

This playing hall of the 4th Gredine Open will remain as a fond memory for every Indian chess fan... | Photo: Official website

...and so will the little town of Ortisei! | Photo: Official website

More reports on the Gredine Open 2018 on ChessBase India:

12 years, 10 months and 13 days - Praggnanandhaa becomes the 2nd youngest GM in the history of chess!

Praggnanandhaa two games away from becoming a grandmaster