Tata Steel 2024 R4: Praggnanandhaa beats Ding Liren second year in-a-row, becomes the new India no.1
R Praggnanandhaa scored an emphatic victory against the reigning world champion Ding Liren in the fourth round of 86th Tata Steel Masters 2024. Praggnanandhaa managed to win against Ding Liren for the second consecutive year at the same event, round and also color. He is now India no.1 in live ratings. After Vishy Anand, he becomes the second Indian to beat a reigning world champion in a Classical rated game. Gukesh lost to Anish Giri in a long endgame grind. This win propelled Giri to sole lead. Vidit Gujrathi drew against Jorden van Foreest comfortably. Leon Luke Mendonca lost against Erwin L'Ami from a promising position. Today is the first of three rest days. Round 5 pairings: Vidit v Max Warmerdam, Gukesh v Ian Nepomniachtchi, Praggnanandhaa v Giri, IM Divya Deshmukh v GM Mustafa Yilmaz and Harika Dronavalli v Leon. The fifth round starts tomorrow Thursday 18th January at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024
Anish Giri emerges sole leader
"Yeah I think any day if you beat such a strong player I think it's always special because it's not very easy to beat them. I think first time winning against a world champion in Classical chess. So that feels good." - R Praggnanandhaa on whether this win against Ding Liren is extra special, now that he is the reigning world champion. Praggnanandhaa was aware of his win against Ding Liren in the fourth round. So when he saw the pairings of this event, the fact dawned upon him. He has done something which among the Indians only Vishy Anand managed to do in Classical rated tournaments, beat a reigning a world champion.
Ding Liren - Praggnanandhaa: 0-1
R Praggnanadhaa (2743) defeated Ding Liren (CHN, 2780) in the exact same round at the same event, after a year. The world champion mentioned the fact on his third round interview. The teenager felt that the position was holdable once he gained the b2-pawn after 30...Rxb2.
Praggnanandhaa mentioned in the post-game interview, "I think when he went 41.Ned5 when I managed to trade my bishop, I thought it should be closer to a win, but (there are) still some tricks. Even at the end, I was not sure if I should go 49...f4 but I thought it's winning and I should. Yeah if I think it's winning I thought I should just go for it and it turned out it's winning."
Solve the questions posed by IM Sagar Shah on our interactive platform, ChessRanga.
Giri - Gukesh: 1-0
Anish Giri (NED, 2749) defeated D Gukesh (2725) for the second consecutive year with white pieces. Only this time it was the fourth round instead of Round 2. Giri grinded an advantageous rook and opposite color bishop endgame, eventually his opponent crumbled and lost the game.
Leon - Erwin: 0-1
Leon Luke Mendonca (2608) had a substantial advantage against Erwin L'Ami (NED, 2627). However, in time trouble Leon missed his opportunity after outplaying his opponent earlier.
Here White needed to find 34.Rh1 Qxg5+ 35.Bg3 Qf6 36.Qh7+ Kf8 37.Rf1 would have been winning. Instead, the game continued 34.Qh6 Qf8 35.Qxf8+ Nxf8 White's attack evaporated and Black eventually turned things around and went on to win the game.
Replay live stream
Replay Round 4 Masters games
Replay Round 4 Challengers games
Round 4 results
Standings after Round 4
Round 5 pairings
Schedule
Starting from Saturday 13th to 27th January, all round starts at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST. Only Sunday 28th January, the final round will start at 12 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Rest days are same for both Masters and Challengers section - 17th, 22nd and 25th January 2024.
Time Control
100 minutes for 40 moves, followed by 50 minutes for the remaining moves with 30 seconds increment for each move starting from the first move.
