Chennai boy R Praggnanandhaa on Saturday became the second youngest chess grandmaster in the world. Praggnanandhaa is just 12 years, 10 months and 14 days old. In 1990, Ukranian GM Sergei Karajakin became the youngest grandmaster at 12 years and 7 months.

Praggnanandhaa, who has been playing at the Gredine Open in Ortisei, Italy beat Italian Grandmaster Luca Moroni Jr in the 8th round, according to a TOI report. The game saw the Chennai lad play some powerful attacking chess and he did not let go of the advantage he got in the beginning of the game.

Feeling the pressure midway, Moroni resigned giving the game to Praggnanandhaa.

Praggnanandhaa has bagged some great wins in this tournament. He beat Iranian players Aryan Gholami and the Italian GM. This however was not enough to crown Praggnanandhaa a grandmaster. The boy had to face an opponent above the 2482 Elo ranking.

He drew with Pruijssers Roeland from the Netherlands whose rating was 2514.

The current Croatian GM Saric Ivan leads the race and Praggnanandhaa comes right after him, in second spot.

The Chennai boy won the GM title in World Juniors 2017 and his second GM norm at a closed round-robin tournament in Greece. He has also crossed 2500 Elo rating points, the system used to calculate chess ratings.