Young Indian Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa added to his growing reputation as a star of the future by winning the Open A section of the 15th International Chess Open Paracin held in the town of Paracin in Serbia.

Playing in the Open A section of the event, the 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa garnered eight points from nine rounds, finishing half a point ahead of his nearest rival, Alexandr Predke, a Russian player playing under the flag of FIDE, the sport`s world governing body.

In the ninth and final round on Saturday, Praggnanandhaa, the Grandmaster from Chennai, played out a draw with Serbia`s Alisher Suleymenov while Predke defeated India`s V Pranav on the second board with white pieces to move up to 7.5 points. Suleymenov finished third with seven points after a tie with India`s Al Muthaiah, who defeated Arystanbek Urazayev of Serbia to move up to seven points in the classical chess tournament.

Also Read: Murali Sreeshankar finishes 7th in long jump finals in World C`ships

Praggnanandhaa, who had twice beaten world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in the Meltwater Champions Tour rapid chess tournament in recent months, remained unbeaten in the nine-round Swiss League tournament as the second seed won seven games and drew two.

Among the other Indians in the fray, V Pranav finished fifth after a tie on 8.5 points with seven other players including compatriots Arjun Kalyan and Harshavardhan G B, both of whom finished in the top 10.

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever