Praggnanandhaa, India’s 18-year-old phenom of the 64 squares, managed to defeat World No 1 Magnus Carlsen for the primary time in a classical sport late on Wednesday in a spherical 3 match on the Norway Chess, Carlsen’s residence event.
What made the day sweeter was that whereas Praggnanandhaa ends the day on the high of the open standings, Vaishali ended the third spherical on the high of the ladies’s standings.
Carlsen threw what he himself termed a ‘dangerous’ opening at Praggnanandhaa, attempting to shock {the teenager} from Chennai. However the ploy backfired. Regardless of being caught off guard, Praggnanadhaa managed to quickly pile on the strain on the five-time world champion.
“His opening was provocative. I stated he desires to struggle, as a result of in any other case he might play one thing strong. I didn’t thoughts in any respect. We’ll struggle and we’ll see the way it goes,” Praggnanandhaa informed The Indian Specific after the victory.
Hikaru Nakamura, who was passing by after his sport, remarked to Norway’s TV 2 Sport that Carlsen would solely play such dangerous openings towards a teenager, however not towards veterans like himself or Fabiano Caruana.
What was outstanding concerning the win for Praggnanandhaa was that the 18-year-old was trailing on the clock for many of the match towards Carlsen.
“I’m feeling good. The sport was fairly attention-grabbing. I received an excellent place from the opening. I sort of misplayed it in some unspecified time in the future. I allowed bishop e3, f6… then I used to be informed that I nonetheless performed accurately. Perhaps I used to be higher all through the sport,” Pragg informed choose journalists in Stavanger after the win.
Requested if this was one in every of his finest wins, Praggnanandhaa stated: “I don’t know, I should verify. I didn’t assume I performed rather well. I did discover some finest strikes. It’s not my finest sport for positive.”
Carlsen himself made a few appearances within the confessional sales space — a novelty that has been round at Norway Chess since 2015 — through the sport.
“Clearly, a reasonably dangerous opening selection as we speak. I believe his transfer 10.h3, although, was a bit bit mushy. He thought of it for a very long time there. I suppose he was calculating f4 and queen c5. I don’t actually assume that’s worse for black. In order that was a bit little bit of a waste of a transfer. Other than that, generally h3 can be utilized for rooks and queen for assaults. I wasn’t overly impressed with that one,” stated Carlsen within the confessional sales space in the midst of the sport.
Pragg was trailing on the clock from very early on. By transfer 10, Carlsen already had a 20-minute benefit on the clock. Over the following 4 strikes, the Indian teen had only one hour on the clock with 26 extra strikes to make to beat the primary time management.
On transfer 13, when Carlsen slid his queen to d7, the eval jumped to point a bonus for Pragg.
After transfer 15, Carlsen made one other fast pit cease on the confessional sales space.
“I’m a bit bit scared that he’s going to go fe6 and knight d5 now. I’ll take the knight and perhaps I’ll fortress queenside. Nevertheless it seems fairly scary. I doubt that it’s objectively good for white, though I’m not fairly positive. I really feel that in different traces I’ll be alright. BUt knight d5 scares me a bit,” smiled Carlsen earlier than strolling out of the confessional sales space.
The sport began with loads of curiosity within the enjoying corridor which is ordinarily as quiet as a library as about 50 or so impeccably-dressed staff from a monetary agency have been current for the opening strikes of all of the six video games. However most of them have been focussed solely on the Pragg vs Carlsen sport, virtually forming an extended line in entrance of their board to take pictures.
The sport itself began with Pragg taking 31 seconds earlier than enjoying 1.e4, prodding forward his king’s pawn, which is arguably the most well-liked opening transfer with white. Carlsen responded by nonchalantly sliding his pawn to c5. An Open Sicilian then makes an look.
Talking afterward, Pragg stated: “My prep stopped at bishop d3. I didn’t assume he would play this and likewise queen c7 was a shock. I couldn’t keep in mind something after that.”