On a major day for Indian chess, Praggnanandhaa took down World No.2 Fabiano Caruana in Spherical 5 of Norway Chess. The outcome signifies that he has now crushed the World No.1 (Magnus Carlsen) and World No.2 in the identical occasion within the classical format. Praggnanandhaa had additionally gone on an analogous giant-killing spree on the FIDE World Cup final yr, the place he had defeated Caruana and World No.3 Hikaru Nakamura to enter the ultimate, the place Carlsen had managed to overpower him in tiebreaks.
The outcome additionally meant that India now have three gamers within the prime 10 within the FIDE reside rankings, none of whom are named Viswanathan Anand. Anand is World No. 11 within the reside rankings, whereas Arjun Erigaisi is the top-ranked Indian within the FIDE reside rankings at No.5, with World Championship challenger Gukesh at No.7 whereas Praggnanandhaa takes the tenth place. It should be famous that FIDE releases its revealed rankings in the beginning of each month and reside rankings are calculated on a real-time foundation so there may be fluctuation in ranks typically each day if tournaments are working.
Whereas Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa have made loads of headlines again house in India, in chess circles, Erigaisi can be making a reputation for himself along with his sport play.
Earlier than the Norway Chess match began, Carlsen in an interview with The Indian Categorical had damaged down the distinction between the three Indian kids, who’re largely regarded as the current and way forward for Indian chess: “Gukesh is a really calculation-based participant. Pragg additionally calculates nicely however he’s slightly extra intuitive. He’s extra of a participant, within the sense that he’s extra of a gamer. Arjun is only a full mad man on the board. He needs to kill you in each single sport. Has loopy preparation and performs extraordinarily ambitiously and that’s what makes him very harmful.”
The defeat to Praggnanandhaa at Norway Chess additionally pushed USA’s Caruana to World No.3 whereas compatriot Nakamura rose to No.2. Nakamura had managed to defeat Praggnanandhaa in a earlier spherical and holds on to the highest spot within the open match standings at Norway Chess.
“The sport was good. It’s not straightforward to outplay such a powerful opponent in these sorts of endgames the place there may be only a very slight benefit. So I’m very pleased with the outcome,” Praggnanandhaa instructed Norway’s TV2 after the sport.
HE IS BACK 🔥🔥 #NorwayChess pic.twitter.com/2FyT8rChQU
— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 2, 2024
Caruana mistake towards Pragg proves pricey
Whereas the sport gave the impression to be idling in direction of a draw, Caruana blundered on transfer 66 when his king got here beneath verify from Pragg’s advancing knight. As an alternative of shifting the king to f7, he shuffled it to f6, which made the engine instantly elevate a stunned eyebrow.
Pragg had anticipated that he would have a slight higher hand earlier than the endgame unravelled: declaring that whereas the speculation steered that him having two pawns to Caruana’s one on the board apart from a knight every could be a drawn sport, he had an opportunity to get one thing extra.
“I’ve obtained a really fascinating endgame. It’s usually mentioned knight 4 versus three is successful. And knight three versus two is supposedly a draw. However I’ve checked out a few of these positions and if the white king is kind of lively it may be tough! I’m hoping will probably be tough on this case as nicely,” Pragg mentioned within the confessional sales space in the course of his sport towards Caruana. Difficult it did certainly get for Caruana, who only a few days away was being talked about as being near overhauling Carlsen because the World No.1 however now finds himself ranked third on the planet within the reside rankings.