After losing to French player Firouzja Alireza in the Armageddon tiebreaker, Pragganandhaa is currently ranked third with 9.5 total points.
The brother-sister Indian team of R Praggnanandhaaa and R Vaishali lost in their separate sections, but Magnus Carlsen proved worthy of his top ranking by defeating an uncharacteristically uncooperative Ding Liren to take the lead with 12 points in this Norway Chess competition.
In addition, Fabiano Caruana defeated fellow countryman Hikaru Nakamura, which helped Larsen become the clear favorite in the six-player double round-robin competition with a USD 161000 total prize pool.
While Vaishali fell to China’s Wenjun Ju, the world women’s champion, after the Indian outplayed her in the final game, Pragganandhaa lost to Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon tiebreaker after struggling a little in the Classical game as well.
There are still four rounds left in both parts, and Carlsen is now leading Nakamura with 11 points, while Praggnanandhaa is in third place with 9.5 total.
With eight points overall, Alireza is in fourth place, followed by Caruana, who has 6.5 points. China’s Ding Liren, who has only 2.5 points so far in the tournament, is surprisingly out of sorts and will require a miracle to turn things around.
Wenjun overtook Vaishali in the women’s division, and she was joined by Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, who triumphed over Tingjie Lei of China after a fierce battle. Wenjun and Muzychuk have the same score of 10.5, which puts them half a point ahead of Vaishali.
With seven points, Lei is in fourth place, two points ahead of Koneru Humpy, who was defeated by Pia Cramling of Sweden in the Armageddon.
Cramling remains at the bottom of the rankings with 4.5 points.
With a little lead from the start, world champion Carlsen took advantage of his double bishops to attack the king side. He then leveraged another mistake by Ding Liren to finish the game with a queen sacrifice that looked like a child.
Liren needs to gather himself in order to compete against India’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in the upcoming event. He doesn’t look like the guy who defeated Nepomniachtchi of Russia to win the previous world championship title.
There are currently bids from Delhi, Chennai, and Singapore to host the World Championship match, according to FIDE, the top regulatory body.
Alireza exerted pressure on Praggnanandhaa with a superb game under Classical, finally drawing the match and giving him a shock. However, the Indian stumbled and was unable to mount a meaningful recovery in the rematch.
Vaishali had her chances in the women’s division, but Wenjun Ju was at the top of her game and took advantage of opportunities when they presented themselves. While Vaishali had some opportunities in the minor pieces endgame, she was unable to maintain the pressure.
Results men: Magnus Carlsen (Nor, 12) beat Ding Liren (Chn, 2.5) 3-0; Hikaru Nakamura (USA, 11) lost to Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 6.5) 1-1.5; Firouzja Alireza (Fra, 8) beat R Praggnanandhaa (10) 1.5-1.
Women: R Vaishali (Ind, 10) lost to Wenjun Ju (Chn, 10.5) 0-3; K Humpy (Ind, 5) lost to Pia Cramling (Swe, 4.5) 1-1.5; Anna Muzychuk (10.5 beat Tingkie Lei (Chn, 7) 1.5-1).
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