R Praggnanandhaa defeats world No 1 Magnus Carlsen to finish runner-up at FTX Crypto Cup-Sports News , Firstpost

File image of Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa. Image credit: Lennart Ootes

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa concluded an impressive campaign at the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami with a victory over world No 1 Magnus Carlsen to finish second overall in the standings.

Praggnanandhaa defeated the the Norwegian chess star in the blitz playoff in the seventh round after being tied 2-2 in the regulation game to finish runner-up with 15 points in the standings.

Carlsen finished marginally ahead of the Indian prodigy with 16 points to his name, clinching the tournament that is part of the Champions Chess Tour for a second year in a row.

“I’ve been playing badly all day, but now I’m getting the results I deserve… it’s never good to lose, but this is as good a time as any!,” Carlsen said after the match.

Alireza Firouzja, another highly-rated teen and a prodigy, also finished on 15 points but had to settle for third place as he had lost the clash against Praggnanandhaa earlier.

The first two games of the Carlsen-Praggnanandhaa match were drawn before the world No1 went ahead by clinching the third.

In a surprise turn of events, the Indian won the fourth game to push the match into the tie-breaks. He shocked the Norwegian by winning both the games in the tie-break.

Praggnanandhaa has been in splendid form this year and had previously beaten the world champion twice in online events.

He also played a crucial role in the India ‘B’ team claiming a bronze medal in the 44th chess Olympiad in Chennai recently.

“I think it could have done better the last few days but I think overall 2nd is good,” Praggnanandhaa said after the game against Carlsen.

Praggnanandhaa had earlier pulled off four consecutive wins, defeating world No 4 Firouzja, Anish Giri, Levon Aronian and Hans Niemann before Chinese GM Quang Liem Le halted his winning run with a 2-5-0.5 win.

Praggnanandhaa would then suffer a second consecutive loss, this time to Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda via tie break in the sixth round.

In other matches in the final round, Firouzja beat Aronian 2.5-1.5, Quang Liem Le (China) beat Hans Niemann, while Jan-Krzystof thrashed Giri 2.5-0.5.

The eight-player all-play-all tournament was the American finale of the Champions Chess Tour. Each match was played over four rapid games, with blitz tiebreaks in case of a 2-2 draw.

Final placings: 1. Magnus Carlsen 16 match points, 2. R Praggnanandhaa 15, 3. Alireza Firouzja 15, 4. Liem Le 12, 5. Jan-Krzystof Duda 11, 6. Levon Aronian 8, 7. Anish Giri, 8. Hans Niemann 0.

With inputs from PTI

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