R Praggnanandhaa’s dream run on the FIDE World Cup in Baku ended on Thursday, as World No. 1, Magnus Carlsen, defeated him 1.5-0.5 within the tiebreaker to carry the chess title.
After the primary two video games within the classical format had been drawn, Carlsen wanted simply two video games within the shorter time management of 25 minutes within the tiebreaker to prevail on Thursday.
Pragg, who turned 18 through the World Cup, is the youngest finalist ever. The teenager from Chennai, who was seeded 31, now additionally holds the excellence of being the bottom seed to make it to the ultimate.
Before he pushed Carlsen to the tiebreaker, Pragg ended the campaigns of World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura and World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana. He is now assured of a spot within the eight-man Candidates Tournament (which is held to discover a challenger to the reigning world champion).
🏆 Magnus Carlsen is the winner of the 2023 FIDE World Cup! 🏆
Magnus prevails towards Praggnanandhaa in an exciting tiebreak and provides yet one more prestigious trophy to his assortment! Congratulations! 👏
📷 Stev Bonhage #FIDEWorldCup pic.twitter.com/sUjBdgAb7a
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 24, 2023
Growing up within the shadow of his sister, Vaishali Rameshbabu, an area chess champion, Pragg started taking part in the sport when he was three years outdated. Displaying distinctive expertise at a really younger age, he grew to become the world’s youngest International Master in 2016, when he was nonetheless 10 years outdated. He grew to become a GM on the age of 12 in 2018, the second youngest participant to take action on the time. And he reached the 2600 mark within the ELO score on the age of 14, as soon as once more a world report on the time.
However, a World Cup title eluded him on Thursday. Carlsen proved to be simply too skilled. The Norwegian received the primary tiebreaker with 47 strikes regardless of taking part in with black items. Just a day in the past, taking part in with white, he had chosen to push for a draw within the second classical recreation, in a ploy that five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand likened to the techniques Carlsen had employed towards Sergey Karjakin within the twelfth recreation of the 2016 World Championship battle.
After Game 1 resulted in a draw on Tuesday, Wednesday’s Game 2 additionally resulted in a draw, with Carlsen pushing the sport to a stalemate from the beginning in order that he can take his probabilities towards Praggnanandhaa within the tiebreaker. (FIDE/Stev Bonhage)
If he was feeling any aftereffect of the meals poisoning he suffered after his semi-final win over Nijat Abasov, Carlsen didn’t present it on Thursday.
He was his ruthless self towards Pragg, noticing {the teenager} had waded into time bother within the first tiebreak. He responded by complicating issues on the board and concurrently flooring his foot on the pedal, as he performed with the urgency of a person driving an ambulance. He nearly blitzed his strikes on the finish, leaving Pragg no respiration house to consider a stouter defence. Carlsen pushed till Pragg lastly yielded. In the second recreation, Carlsen pressured a draw to seal his win.
Before Thursday, the Norwegian boasted of a formidable resume: five-time world champion within the classical format, four-time fast world champion, six-time world blitz champion, and World No.1 since 2011. But the World Cup title was lacking. Right after his win over Pragg on Thursday, he tweeted with a GIF that declared he had “completed chess”.
The triumph comes at a time when Carlsen’s profession is on the crossroads. Earlier this 12 months, he selected to abdicate his proper to defend his place because the world champion. Consequently, the 32-year-old was changed by Ding Liren, the primary time since 2013.
Magnus Carlsen received the primary tiebreaker with 47 strikes regardless of taking part in with black items. (FIDE/Stev Bonhage)
The causes Carlsen gave had been fairly simple: lack of motivation and never wanting to place himself via the rigours of one other marketing campaign.
On Thursday, he was requested by Chess24 if the World Cup triumph had modified his relationship with classical chess. “I wouldn’t say it increases the chances that I will play this again. Winning the World Cup wasn’t really a thing for me before 2017. After I did so poorly, I thought I cannot let this be my legacy for the World Cup,” he responded.
He prompt that he competed on the World Cup to show some extent. “If it was very clear from my results in classical chess that I’m still comfortably the best player in the world, I wouldn’t have played here,” he stated.
“Almost since the first day (of the World Cup) I’ve been wondering, what am I doing here? Why am I spending all this time playing classical chess, which I find stressful and boring? It’s not a good state of mind,” Carlsen advised FIDE’s YouTube channel earlier.
The loss to Vincent Keymer earlier got here as a wake-up name. In 2017, he had suffered an early exit when he misplaced to World No 35 Bu Xiangzhi within the third spherical. “My thoughts were, if I lose and go out, that’s going to be another humiliation in the World Cup. I know I’ll forget about it in a couple of days, but it’s still less than ideal. Now I’ve had my first serious scare,” Carlsen stated.
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That scare appeared to whet his urge for food for classical chess. In the last-16 encounter towards Vasyl Ivanchuk, Carlsen rejected a draw supply from his Ukrainian opponent within the second recreation, regardless of not needing to win since he had received the primary one.
Against Nijat Abasov within the semi-final, he turned up early, and gave the world the now-viral clip of him providing his hand to an empty chair throughout the board. He began the clock of his opponent, who was a number of seconds late, after which waited. “It was a joke,” he stated later.
But, because it seems, he was lethal critical about profitable.