File photo of R Praggnanandhaa.© FIDE

World number two Fabiano Caruana defended his Superbet Classic title by winning all three rapid games in a thrilling four-way tiebreaker, featuring Indian Grandmasters D Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa, after a rather dull tournament. Caruana lost to Anish Giri of Holland in the Classical format to split the competition wide open as Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and France’s Alireza Firouzja all finished the classical section tied for first.

Praggnanandhaa survived by the skin of the teeth against Alireza, who held a completely winning position for a long time. If the Frenchman had won the final classical round there would have been no need of tiebreak games as he would have overtaken Caruana on points.

But Caruana lost, Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa drew and that set up a four-way tiebreaker to decide the winner.

Caruana, not known as a tiebreaker master, proved that he can get the better of the younger generation as he defeated all three –- Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Alireza to come up trumps and win the first prize hamper of USD 68500.

The tiebreaker saw the two Indians on the backfoot. Gukesh could have done better but Caruana was spot on while Praggnanandhaa could have complicated things.

Earlier, Praggnanandhaa was staring at his first defeat in the tournament as Alireza was clearly on top.

The Indian struggled in the middle game and had to part with a rook for a minor piece but fought till the last to salvage a lost a position.

Gukesh played out a draw with Wesley So in a mere 22 moves, the Nimzo Indian defense did not give any confidence to the American and the draw was through repetition of moves.

Results final round: Anish Giri (Ned, 4.5) beat Fabiano Caruana (5); Alireza Firouzja (Fra, 5) drew with R Praggnaanandhaa (Ind. 5); Deac Bogdan-Daniel (Rom, 3.5) drew with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (Fra, 4.5); Wesley So (USa, 4) drew with D Gukesh (Ind, 5);; Ian Nepomnichtchi (Fid, 4.5) drew with Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzb, 4.5). 

File image of R Praggnanandhaa.© X (Twitter)

Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her dream run to defeat veteran GM Pia Cramling of Sweden, while her brother R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Hikaru Nakamura of USA in the fourth round of the Norway chess tournament in Stavanger. Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control. The Indian now has 8.5 points in her kitty and is followed by women’s world champion Wenjun Ju of China and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.

Muzychuk defeated Koneru Humpy for her first win in the tournament while Wenjun got through her compatriot Tingjie Lei in the Armageddon.

With six rounds still remaining in the six-player double round-robin tournament, Lei stands fourth on five points, two points clear of Humpy and Cramling.

In the men’s section, world number one Magnus Carlsen grinded down arch-rival Fabiano Caruana of United States on a day that witnessed all decisive games under classical time control.

In the other game of the day, Firouzja Alireza of France put it across reigning world champion Ding Liren of China.

The USD 1,61,000 prize money tournament has many more critical games to come but at the end of fourth round Nakamura has nosed ahead on seven points, enjoying a half point lead over Alireza.

Carlsen is third with six points to his credit while Praggnanandhaa slipped to fourth position on 5.5 points. Caruana is a close fifth at this stage with five points while Liren is a distant last on just 2.5 points thus far.

Vaishali won thanks to her perseverance out of a drawn rook and pawns endgame.

Playing the black side of a Grunfeld defense, the Chennai-based GM had little trouble equalising and the players arrived at a heavy piece endgame in almost no time.

Cramling had to solve her pawn structure problem a bit and this is where Vaishali thought she had a chance.

The game was still within the boundaries of a draw when Cramling blundered and found herself staring at a lost rook and pawns endgame. The game lasted 54 moves.

Humpy lost to Muzychuk in what was a similar story. The rook and pawns endgame should have been a draw but a blunder by Humpy towards the end sealed the fate of the game in Muzychuk’s favour.

This was Muzychuk’s first victory in Classical chess in almost seven months.

In the men’s section, Nakamura capitalised on some unforced errors from Praggnanandhaa. The Nimzo Indian defense by the Indian resulted in a dynamic balance but Praggnanandhaa got too optimistic in the resulting middle game and sacrificed a knight.

The compensation, however, was not enough and Nakamura converted his extra material into a full point after 86 moves.

Carlsen defeated Caruana out of a Queen and pawns endgame. Outplaying his opponent from a balanced position has long been a hallmark of Carlsen and this day was no different as he won thanks to a blunder by Caruana in the final part of the game.

File image of R Praggnanandhaa© AFP

With less than a week to go for the prestigious 12th edition of Norway Chess, India’s chess sensation Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is excited about playing the field which includes world No.1 Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Ding Liren and world No.3 Hikaru Nakamura among other global stars. The event will be held at Stavanger, Norway, from May 27 to June 7. “I am very happy and excited to play in Norway Chess. The field is extremely strong. This is perhaps the strongest field I have played and I see this as an opportunity and a challenge to give my best. I am also looking forward to playing in this time control which I have not played anywhere else,” said the 18-year-old Pragg.

Reflecting on his contest with world No.1 Magnus Carlsen at last year’s FIDE Chess World Cup where he gave the 32-year-old Norwegian a stiff challenge, Pragg said, “I always enjoy a good challenge. After the World Cup last year, this will be my first classical game with him. I am quite excited to play him and equally excited to play the others. No doubt the experience here will help me in future tournaments.”

The youngster from Chennai further emphasised that playing Carlsen on his home turf (Norway) is not a challenge. “I don’t think playing Magnus on his home turf is a challenge for me. Usually, it matters to the player playing in his home but it won’t matter so much for me,” expressed a confident Pragg, who will also have his sister Vaishali Rameshbabu play the prestigious Norway Chess Women’s Tournament for the first time.

“I am happy to see an exclusive women’s tournament being introduced in Norway Chess. It is a very good initiative because there are not many tournaments for women. This will encourage other organizations to come up with women’s tournaments too.

“My sister also will be playing there. I am looking forward to seeing how she will do,” he said.

With more events being added to the international calendar, Pragg highlighted the growth of chess worldwide and the increasing opportunities for young and upcoming players.

“It is a busy schedule this year. After the Norway Chess, we move to Budapest for the Chess Olympiad and I will also be playing the Global Chess League later this year. It is really good to have such an exciting league which I think will definitely help grow the game. As a chess fan, I’m happy to see this league grow. For now, my focus is on Norway Chess and I am physically and mentally well-prepared to do my best there,” signed off Pragg.

The tournament will be played in a double round-robin format with classical time control with each player getting 120 minutes for 40 moves with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. After move 41, there is a 1-second increment.

In case of a game ending in a draw, an Armageddon game will be played. In Armageddon, white gets 10 minutes, black seven.

Winning a classical game will fetch three points while a player will get 1.5 points for winning in Armageddon while one point will be awarded for losing Armageddon.

Full list of participants at Norway Chess 2024:

Men’s category:

1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 2830, World No. 1

2. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 2804, World No. 2

3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2788, World No. 3

4. World Champion Ding Liren (China), 2776, World No. 4

5. Alireza Firouzja (France), 2765, World No. 6

6. Praggnanandhaa R. (India), 2748, World No. 11

Women’s Category: (ranking mentioned is in women’s section):

1. Koneru Humpy (India), 2554, World No. 2

2. Lei Tingjie (China), 2550, World No. 4

3. Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), 2547, World No. 5

4. Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), 2525, World No. 7

5. Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), 2481, World No. 14

6. Pia Cramling (Sweden), 2437, World No. 31