18-year-old Praggnanandhaa defeated World No 1 Magnus Carlsen for the first time in classical chess at the Norway Chess Tournament.
Praggnanandhaa, India’s 18-year-old Grandmaster managed to defeat World No 1 Magnus Carlsen in a round 3 match at the Norway Chess tournament.
Praggnanandhaa has beaten Carlsen in the rapid/exhibition games quite a few times. But this is the first time he has clinched victory against the World No 1 in a classical chess game.
Classical chess allows the players to take significant amount of time to make their moves, usually at least one hour. Praggnanandhaa took the leader’s position with 5.5 points after three rounds. His victory pushed home favourite Carlsen to the fifth spot in the points table.
Consequently, Praggnanandhaa ended the day at the top of the open standings at Norway Chess. His sister, Vaishali, ended the third round at the top of the women’s standings after edging past Anna Muzychuk in the Armageddon.
22-year-old Vaishali will face Pia Cramling in the fourth round. 61-year old Cramling has been playing the sport for half a century. In her long career, she was the World No 1 in the women’s rankings, and became only the fifth woman in history to become a G randmaster.
In other games, world number two Fabiano Caruana of the USA defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren of China. Hikaru Nakamura won his Armageddon game against Alireza Firouzja of France to earn an extra half point and is third in the standings.
Praggnanandhaa will be up against Nakamura in the fourth round.
