“9.30 PM. Isn’t that a kid’s bedtime in Chennai?” tweeted Anish Giri of the Netherlands, currently ranked World No.10. This cheeky query was aimed at his semi-final opponent in the MCCT Chessable Masters Online Rapid tournament, Rameshbabu Praggananandhaa, 16, and the time reference was to the scheduled time of their encounter.

Praggu was more than awake, in fact, he was at his devastating best and knocked out Giri 3.5-2.5 in one of the most shocking results of the tournament to advance to the finals early on Wednesday morning.