India’s R Praggnanandhaa beat Australia’s Ari Dale in the fifth round at the Lidums Australian Young Masters on Tuesday to stay on course to get his second Grandmaster norm.
The 12-year-old, however, needs to win the remaining four rounds to earn the norm in the tournament.
Playing with black pieces, he beat Dale in 32 moves. He’s slated to play Australia’s Patrick Gong in the sixth round.
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.