Chinese world No.2 Ding Liren seized the advantage against India's teenaged Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa in the final of Meltwater Champions Chess Tour Chessable Masters online tournament, taking a 2.5-1.5 lead after the opening day of the match early on Thursday. The 16-year old Praggnanandhaa, who lost the opening game of the all-Asian final, bounced back strongly to level the first match when he won game two. Liren then showed why he is rated so highly by taking the lead, outwitting his young Indian opponent, who had on Wednesday appeared for his standard XI examination, in the third game.
The fourth game saw the two players sign peace in 39 moves as Liren took a one- point advantage into day two of the summit clash.
The second day of the final will also feature four games and the tie-break if required.
Praggnanandhaa has been in good form during the tournament and had created a flutter in the preliminary phase by beating world No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the sixth round. He had finished fourth in the preliminaries behind Anish Giri, Carlsen and Liren.