India’s R Praggnanandhaa lost to Azerbaijan’s Kanan Izzat in the fourth round at the Lidums Australian Young Masters in Adelaide on Monday. The 12-year-old is seventh in the standings and needs to win the remaining five rounds in order to get his second GM norm in the tournament. He will play Australia’s Ari Dale in the fifth round.
Praggnanandhaa, playing with white pieces, lost in 29 moves to the 21-year-old Izzat. In the third round, in which he played with black, he drew with Russia’s Vasily Papin. Praggnanandhaa began the tournament with a win against Grandmaster Adrien Demuth.
According to the World Chess Federation (FIDE) handbook, a player has to achieve two or more norms in events covering at least 27 games to become a Grandmaster. Praggnanandhaa accomplished his first GM norm at the World Junior Championship last month in Italy. He will look to get two more by March 2018 to break Sergey Karjakin’s record of being the youngest GM at 12 years and seven months in 2002.
In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master at 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days.