Young Indian grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi got the better of Liem Quang Le (Vietnam) to take on world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Julius Baer Generation Cup online rapid chess tournament.
As 19-year-old Erigaisi struggled to overcome a challenge from rival Vietnam, Carlsen prevailed 3-1.
In the Erigaisi-Liem Le match, the first game ended in a draw before the Indians won the second to go ahead. A draw followed in the third before the Vietnamese player equalized with a 32-stroke victory. However, in the tiebreaker it was Erigaisi all the way as he won back to back games to book a place in the final, to be played Carlsen had to work hard for his passage to the final by the Keymer. The German teenager fought to stay in the game as both games 1 and 2 ended in a draw before the world No.1 broke through to win the next two. The two-day final of the $150,000 event begins late Saturday, with the first match being a best-of-four encounter. The second game will take place on Sunday when the winner will be crowned.
Earlier, Carlsen topped the preliminary standings with 34 points followed by Erigaisi and Indian R Praggnanandhaa in fourth place.
The event features 16 players across three generations and takes place on a round-robin-cum-knockout format.
(This story has not been edited by the Devdiscourse team and is auto-generated from a syndicated feed.)