Praggnanandhaa scores final GM norm

It looks like R. Praggnanandhaa from India is about to become the second youngest GM in history. At one stage he looked on track to beat Sergey Karjakin's record, who earned the title at 12 years and 7 months, but he was unable to score the final norm required. However, at 12 years and 10 months he is still the second youngest player to earn the title, 6 months younger than when both Carslen and Negi became GM's.
He earned the title on the way to finishing equal first in the Gerdine Open in Italy, scoring 7.5/9 along with GM Ivan Saric. But while Praggnanandhaa is celebrating his title, another competitor in the event is far less happy with the title process. Australian IM Justin Tan (who scored 6/9 in the event) found out the GM norm he thought he had scored in the 2017-18 4NCL season is invalid on the grounds he did not play the right mix of international players. Previously a national teams championship was exempt from 'foreigner' requirements (in the same way a National Championship is), but a change to FIDE regulations meant this only applied to players from the host Federation.As a result Tan still needs one more norm for his GM title.


Pruijssers,Roeland (2514) - Praggnanandhaa,R (2529) [C78]
4th Int. Chess Festival ad Gredine Open Ortisei - St. Ulrich (9.2), 24.06.2018