Norway chess: Pragg misses a trick as Carlsen rolls on

Stavanger, June 7

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Fabiano Caruana of the United States while world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen inflicted an Armageddon defeat on France’s Firouzja Alireza in the penultimate round of the Norway Chess here on Thursday.

With 16 points, Carlsen stretched his lead to 1.5 points over nearest rival Hikaru Nakamura, who was in for a shock as world champion Ding Liren, for once, did not blow his position away.

Praggnanandhaa, despite the loss against Caruana in Armageddon, is still third on 13 points, a point ahead of Alireza. Caruana on 10.5 comes next in the standings ahead of Liren (6), who spoiled Nakamura’s party.

Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana in the classical game, but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.

The Indian has white pieces in the final game against Nakamura and will hope to make the most of it.

In the women’s section, R Vaishali succumbed to another loss to Tingjie Lei of China and was relegated to the fourth spot, while Koneru Humpy went down to leader Wenjun Ju of China.

Wenjun strengthened her position at the top by moving to 16 points. Tingjie and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine follow her on 1.5 points, while Vaishali is a distant fourth with 11.5 ahead of Humpy who is on nine points. Veteran Swede Pia Cramling is last with 6.5 points.

Vaishali was the only one to go down in the classical game while all the other matches saw an Armageddon battle following a draw in normal games.