Norway Chess: Praggnanandhaa loses, Ding Liren is stunned, and Magnus Carlsen leads

Norway Chess, Magnus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa

May 31, 2024

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Norway Chess: Praggnanandhaa loses, Ding Liren is stunned, and Magnus Carlsen leads

There was more excitement in the ongoing Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger, Norway as there are always surprises, intense struggles, dramatic events and even a silly nervous breakdown event.

As India’s teenage chess sensation, Praggnanandhaa, triumphantly savoured his success in the candidate’s pool, he had tasted both the bitter and sweet of competitive chess within a day. In the subsequent game, he played an outstanding match against a Grandmaster such as Hikaru Nakamura who holds the third position in the world. Though challenges were thrown at him, he was able to give his best fight and finally, after 86 moves Nakamura stood the winner. The game had one significant blunder that proved to be fatal for Praggnanandhaa.

Also Read: R Praggnanandhaa Dethrones Viswanathan Anand, Becomes India’s No. 1

That’s right, “confessional booths”, which are a part of Norway Chess for the first time this year were fascinating too. This novel addition has enriched the process and enhanced the value of chess by providing a glimpse inside the brain of these masters.

The colorful personality of Nakamura was seen and he used the confessional booth to complain about his opponents pace including Praggnanandhaa. It can be seen that he was bored and even wished that he were streaming, not playing. In what can be seen as an irony, it was during his visit to the confessional booth basically to admit his mistake in the match that Praggnanandhaa himself came across a missed opportunity of the game check, which defined potential boon and bane of this feature.

First classical win for Praggnanandhaa against Magnus Carlsen. What more to say?

This victory marks a significant milestone in Praggnanandhaa's career. Congratulations! 🌟#NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/ZrCHVexis8

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) May 29, 2024

Women’s Tournament Heats Up

The Norway Chess event is also witnessing great battles in the women’s category. Obviously, Vaishali triumphed in the second consecutive match securing herself on the leaders’ board as the first round finished with a day off in the tournament.

Magnus Carlsen on Top

Magnus Carlsen needs a draw in the final round to retain his number-one spot. This is because the future of top-ranked players, particularly the current battle for the world number one spot continues to be the major focus in the tournament. Carlsen’s next match is against the American World No. 2 and a known rival – Fabiano Caruana outclassing the latter. Carlsen said he thought the psychological pressure of keeping the no1 ranking affected him but nevertheless went on to win the match after Caruana erred a move. This victory makes Carlsen retain his position of the world No. 1 for the short-term.

More to my surprise, before the clock rang, Nakamura pointed out the great historical importance of the Carlsen in Caruana match. As for the previous single match, he expected a possibility of Caruana to be the winner and to take the champions throne from Carlsen. Even though Caruana failed to perform the upset, the match will go on as an interesting part of the show of the tournament.

Ding Liren Struggles

It was the Norway Chess and the World Champion – Ding Liren is having a rather difficult time in the competition. He was still unlucky to be playing the second chess board and he lost the second game in a row to Alireza Firouzja. At one point even Firouzja pipted sympathy for Ding stating that the Chinese is not at his best. His show in the recent round raises eyebrows about his current fitness and ambition to fight for higher positions in the remaining games.

Even before the first rest day was announced in the Norway Chess, there were several attractions to show. The next round starts on June 1, Saturday, and surely the players are willing to fight and think their ways out as well as openly declare how they feel about the game.