Classical Win: R Praggnanandhaa Becomes Fourth Indian To Beat Magnus Carlsen (image- twitter/sportshonours )
Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa secured his maiden victory over the current world champion Magnus Carlsen in the third round of Norway Chess on Thursday. The 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster beat Carlson on his home turf.
He took the sole lead in the open section of the prestigious six-player tournament after the victory. Just after three rounds, the 18-year-old took up the leader’s position with 5.5 points after three rounds.
Praggnanandhaa was playing with the white pieces when he pushed home favourite Carlsen to the fifth position. They both previously had three encounters in the same format.
Praggnanandhaa, the runner-up in the previous year’s FIDE Chess World Cup executed a series of strategic movies to secure the win. Prior to the match, he has earlier recorded victories in both rapid and blitz chess formats.
Classical chess, also known as slow chess allows players to get significant time to make their moves, usually at least one hour.
This win is a big boost to Praggnanandhaa as he had earlier lost the World Cup to Magnus Carlsen. And thereby he becomes the fourth Indian to beat Carlsen in classical chess.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa”s sister R Vaishali has taken up the top spot in women’s competition. She has also secured 5.5 points. She drew her game against Anna Muzychuk.
While in other games, world number two player Fabiano Caruana of the US defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren of China. Liren following the defeat is now dropped to the bottom of the heap in the six-player field.
American Hikaru Nakamura won his Armageddon game against Alirea Firouzja of France to earn an extra half-point and be third in the standings. Nakamura will be against Praggnanandhaa in the fourth round.
The Norway Chess 2024 tournament was held from May 27 to June 7 at SpareBank 1 SR-Bank. It features both the traditional Norway Chess tournament and the newly introduced Norway Chess Women”s tournament. The matches are played in a 6-player double round-robin format and offer equal prize funds.
