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Malcolm Pein on…Pragg’s Further Progress

Malcolm Pein

April 27, 2021

Malcolm Pein covers the further progress of Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in today’s Daily Telegraph column and provides an opportunity to test your strength.

Malcolm Pein on…Pragg’s Further Progress

The Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa won the Polgar Challenge, staged online at Chess24, with a round to spare. The 15-year-old from Chennai earned $3,000 (£2,200) but more importantly earned a place in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Pragg will take on 15 elite GMs including; Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Wesley So and Hikaru Nakamura.

Pragg finished with 15.5/19, 1.5 points ahead of the chasing pack of Nodirbek Abdusattorov of Uzbekistan, two more Indians Dommaraju Gukesh and Nihal Sarin and Russia’s Volodar Murzin. Team Polgar clinched team victory with 96.5 points to Team Kramnik’s 88.

J. B. Bjerre – R. Praggnanandhaa
Polgar Challenge, Chess24

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.Nf3 0–0 6.Be2 Nbd7 7.0–0 e5 8.Be3 c6 9.d5 c5 (A typical King’s Indian scenario. White prepares the pawn breaks b2–b4 and f2–f4. Black counters with f7–f5) 10.Ne1 Kh8 11.g4 (11.Nd3 Ng8 12.Qd2 f5 13.f4 g5! is another sharp continuation) 11…Ng8 12.Qd2 f5 13.gxf5 (13.exf5 gxf5 14.f3 was possible, attempting to keep control of e4, then perhaps 14…Ndf6 15.h3 e4!? opening the e5 square for a black knight) 13…gxf5 14.exf5 Ne7 15.Kh1 Nf6 16.Bd3 Bxf5 (16…Nxf5 looks at least as good, the knight heads for d4, and capturing gives Black control of the light squares) 17.Rg1 e4 18.Be2 Ng6

(Black is doing well already. White’s knight on e1 is badly placed and Black can feed pieces to the action area with ease) 19.Rg5 Qd7 20.Nc2 Rf7 21.Rag1 Raf8 22.Qe1?! Ne5 23.Qf1 Nf3

24.Bxf3 exf3 25.Ne1 Ng4 26.Bf4 (26.Rg3 Nxe3 27.fxe3 f2 28.Ng2 Bd3 29.Qxd3 f1R+ 30.Qxf1 Rxf1#) 26…Bd4 27.Bg3 Rf6 28.Nxf3?

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Black to play and win

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28…Bxc3 29.Nh4 (29.bxc3 Be4) 29…Be4+ 30.f3 Rxf3 31.Nxf3 Rxf3 32.Qg2 Rxg3! 0–1 If 33.Qxe4 Nf2#.

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Malcolm Pein

Malcolm Pein is a British International Master, chess organizer, author and journalist. He was a child prodigy and a former British Junior Champion. He qualified for the International Master title in 1985. Malcolm is a distinguished writer, journalist and editor. He has been a chess correspondent of the Daily Telegraph and Sunday Telegraph for over 30 years, has written numerous chess books and is the Executive Editor of CHESS Magazine. In 1992, he founded the London Chess Centre, a games store in central London and the UK's only chess shop. He is also the founder and CEO of Chess in Schools and Communities, a UK charity whose aim is to introduce chess to state schools and has taught the game to over 250,000 children since its inception in 2009. Malcolm is also well-known for his chess event management. He was responsible for the pre-planning of the World Chess Championship match between Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik in London 2000. In 2002 he was appointed as Technical Director of the 'Brains in Bahrain' match between Vladimir Kramnik and the computer program Fritz. In 2009, Malcolm devised and organized the 1st London Chess Classic - the UK's first world-class elite all-play-all tournament since the 1980s which ran annually until 2019. Malcolm is also very active with the English Chess Federation. In 2016, he was appointed as the Manager and Captain of the England national team. He was also appointed as English Chess Federation delegate to the European Chess Union and FIDE and is the Director of International Chess. In 2018, he also stood for the post of Deputy President of FIDE. In 2021, Malcolm joined the ranks of Chessable authors by bringing the highlights of his column in the Daily Telegraph in the form of an interactive Chessable course, titled Telegraph Tuesday. Profile photograph © Lennart Ootes