No stopping Indian chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa as he makes four wins in a row, beats Aronian

Indian prodigy R Praggnanandhaa handed world No 6 Levon Aronian a 3-1 thrashing in the fourth round to notch up his fourth consecutive win in the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of Champions Chess Tour, on Friday.

The 17-year old Indian is in joint lead with 12 match points along with world No1 Magnus Carlsen, who defeated Quang Liem Le of China 3-1.

Praggnanandhaa won the third game with white pieces after the first two in the four-game match ended in a stalemate.

First, he won with white pieces to take a 2-1 lead after game three and stormed to victory in 44 moves in the fourth to seal an emphatic win over the acclaimed American star.

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Having started his campaign with victory over Alireza Firouzja, the Indian GM has subsequently beaten Anish Giri and Hans Nieman.

Carlsen, meanwhile, secured a similar result, winning games three and four after the first two were drawn.

The duo of Praggnanandhaa and Carslen have a four-point lead over Alireza Firouzja, the world No 4 and the top-ranked junior.

Firouzja edged out Poland's Jan-Krzystof Duda 2.5-1.5 in another fourth-round clash while Dutchman Anish Giri scored his first win in the tournament, beating Hans Nieman by a similar margin.

Three more rounds remain to be played in the eight-player tournament.

The eight-player all-play-all tournament is the American finale of Champions Chess Tour. There is $7,500 at stake for each match win at the event.

Each match will be played over four rapid games, with blitz tiebreaks in case of a 2-2 draw.