Praggnanandhaa’s Semifinal Litmus Test Against Fabiano Caruana at the FIDE World Cup 2023 – News18

Indian chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa has but one obstacle to overcome to reach the final of the FIDE World Cup 2023 underway in Baku, Azerbaijan as he is drawn up against 31-year-old Italian American Chess Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana.

Caruana, who was born in Miami, Florida, relocated to New York during his formative years and the player’s skill and sharpness on the chess board came to the fore at a congregation in NYC and started out his formal education pertaining to the game of strategy at the Polgar Chess Club in Queens.

The dual citizen played his early chess in the USA and would travel occasionally to Europe to participate in tournaments before moving base from the USA to Madrid in the year 2004.

Caruana travelled to multiple nations in Europe such as Hungary, and Switzerland to hone his skill training with other masters of the craft before moving back to the USA in the year 2014.

He managed to win the Italian National Championships in the years  2007, 2008, 2010, and 2011 and the US Chess Championships in the years 2016 and 2022.

He represented Italy up until 2015 before he opted to make the switch to represent the USA.

Following his Berlin Candidates Tournament triumph in 2018 Caruana managed to go toe-to-toe with Magnus Carlsen in the Championship match, which saw a record 12 draws between the players before the Italian-American lost out to the Norwegian on three rapid games.

Caruana also boasts of having bested Magnus at the Super tournament in St. Louiss back in the year 2014 en route to his title with 7 wins on the bounce.

Caruana was handed a bye in the opening round of the ongoing FIDE World Cup and followed it up with an easy win over 44-year-old Georgian Mikheil Mchedlishvili.

The 31-year-old was up against Mustafa Yilmaz in the third round of the event and managed to rally past the Turk, before making easy work of USA’s Ray Robson in the fourth.

He was up against Jan-Krzystof Duda in the fifth and breezed past the Pole before brushing aside the challenge from Leinier Dominguez Perez to set up a semifinal clash against Indian teenage sensation Praggnanandhaa.

The 18-year-old Indian GM Praggnanandhaa earned a hard-fought come-from-behind win over compatriot Arjun Erigasi in the quarterfinal of the ongoing event and that elicited an awe-inspiring reaction from his semis opponent Caruana, who said, “I was surprised that Praggnanandhaa managed to win on demand with Black. I didn’t expect this to happen. I thought Arjun is playing so convincingly in this tournament that he will be able to hold the draw. It is very impressive,” he lauded the efforts of the youngster.

“I would give myself maybe half a per cent chance to win in this situation,” the 31-year-old said, heaping praise on the 18-year-old following his quarterfinal win.

Pragg, as he is fondly known, was also handed a bye in the first round and justified his standing in the community with a strong win over Maxime Lagarde in the second round of the event.

Czech GM David Navara was next in line to face Prag in the third round and the Indian player outclassed the opposition to set up a fourth-round clash against Hikaru Nakamura of the USA, who was outdone by the Indian.

Ferenc Berkes was Praggnanandhaa fifth round adversary and the 18-year-old showed no signs of stopping as he brushed aside the challenge from the Hungarian player to set up an all-Indian clash against Erigasi, which he also ended up winning to reach the semifinals of the FIDE World Cup to become the first Indian since the legendary Viswanathan Anand to reach the final four of the headline event.