Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa after defeating Christopher Yoo of the United States won the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour finals. A 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Praggnanandhaa has won the previous two best-of-four-game quick confrontations with a game to spare. Praggnanandhaa finished with an incredible 8.5 out of a possible 9 points. He could have finished with an incredible 9/9 score if he hadn’t opted to draw from a winning position in the semifinals versus arch-rival Vincent Keymer.
Praggnanandhaa not only won $12,500, but he also earned the privilege to compete in the million-dollar Meltwater Champions Tour in 2022 among the top of the chess world. Viswanathan Anand, a chess legend, congratulated Praggnanandhaa on his victory on Twitter. “Congratulations! That was a fantastic performance. “Pleased of your performance,” Anand tweeted.
The Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour is a series of events that runs concurrently with the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour and involves some of the best young chess players in the world. Individually and in teams, the players competing in this tournament participate.