
The first game of the Chess World Cup 2023 final between Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India and Magnus Carlsen of Norway ended in a draw on Tuesday (Aug22). As a result, the duo will now meet again on Wednesday in game two to decide the winner of the ongoing Chess World Cup final in Baku. The draw occurred after 35 moves as the Indian will now turn to black pieces for the second game having started with white on Tuesday.
After starting with white pieces, 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa established an early dominance as he had an advantage of 20 minutes over veteran Carlsen during the ninth move of the contest. Praggnanandhaa’s offensive push forced Carlsen to take his time before he stormed back into the contest. It took over 15 minutes for the Norwegian Grandmaster to push for the 13th move in the game. It took him 27 minutes to think and deliver the 13th move to stop Praggnanandhaa from gaining any advantage.
However, precise thinking and quickfire moves from the five-time World Champion saw his emphatic return in the game. The Indian was put on the back foot as he took time to push for further moves. With time no longer his friend, Praggnanandhaa’s early time advantage was wiped out as Carlsen started to dominate during the final few moves.
However, with the contest reaching nowhere, both Grandmasters decided to shake hands and move to game two. It took 35 moves for both to come to the conclusion of a draw.
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"It'll be a fight. He'll definitely push very hard. I'll try to rest and come fresh, I think that's the best I can do,” Praggnanandhaa said after game one.
"Normally, I would just probably have a bit of an advantage having a rest day while he had to play a tough tiebreak yesterday, but I've been in a pretty rough shape the last couple of days. I got some food poisoning after the game against Abasov. I haven't been able to eat for the last two days. This also meant that I was really calm cause I had no energy to be nervous,” said Carlsen after conclusion of the contest.
The duo will meet again on Wednesday in the second game with Carlsen set to start with white pieces.
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