Praggnanandhaa fails to maintain the lead: You only needed to watch the three Round 4 games of the open section at the Norway Chess on Thursday to come away from the idea that chess can be brutal.
World No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura gave the 18-year-old Indian teenager a defeat, one day after he achieved one of the most noteworthy victories of his young career in traditional chess by defeating five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen. Although Nakamura had taken the lead early in the match, Pragg fought valiantly in an attempt to stop what seemed to be coming. But ultimately, he realized he had gone headfirst into a checkmate, and his defenses gave way, forcing him to surrender after 86 moves.
Almost immediately after making the move 85.kf5 (king to f5), Pragg realized the game was out of his hands and gripped his forehead.
Fascinatingly, Nakamura would frequently stop by the confessional booth that the Norway Chess tournament organizers had set up, where players could talk about anything during a game in front of cameras and with microphones recording what they said.
Nakamura once said that he was growing “bored.”
“My opponents are thinking too long in every game, thus this (going to the confessional booth) is becoming too frequent an occurrence. “I’m honestly just bored to death, which is probably why I’m back here again, even though I like my position,” he continued, adding that he would “rather be streaming right now rather than playing this game or trading stocks.”
Praggnanandhaa, meanwhile, realized he had overlooked a crucial step after entering the confessional booth.
“Today hasn’t gone too well for me,” the Indian said.
The teenager was dissecting the ensuing line while he was explaining why his opponent couldn’t play 25.Nxd6. As he was talking, he made the move 28.Rf1!
“I see that there are Re2 and Rf1. He added, “I think that white should be better, but I hope to create some counterplay here,” and turned to go.
Vaishali secured her second consecutive victory in the women’s division, securing her place as the leader heading into the first rest day.
Carlsen has a lucky break
If Caruana could have defeated the World No. 1, who has held that position for more than ten years, he could have come to within four rating points of Carlsen after Pragg had dealt Carlsen a defeat in Round 3.
After the match, Carlsen said that he was thinking about holding the top spot in the world.
I reasoned that today would be a good time to try to salvage a tie, maintain my top spot in the world, and restart the competition following the free day. During the Chess dot com broadcast, the Norwegian World No. 1 stated, “As the game progressed, so did my appetite.”
Nakamura had quite nicely established the tone for the Carlsen vs. Caruana match on his first visit to the confessional booth.
“I believe this is a really important game when we consider it in the context of chess history. I don’t set odds, but if Magnus loses today, there’s at least a thirty percent possibility that Caruana will surge ahead of Magnus and claim the top spot globally. An extremely important game in the annals of chess history. Games with this level of significance are uncommon, according to Nakamura.
Nevertheless, after surviving and defeating Caruana, Carlsen’s standing as the world’s top player is not in danger. The loss was all the fault of the American World No. 2, who made a mistake by moving his king to h2 on the final move.
Later, the computer revealed that he might have achieved a better outcome by returning the queen to a2 and left the king alone.
The defeat has resulted in a 23.6 point gap between Carlsen and Caruana on the points standings. It is important to highlight that Carlsen has now led the monthly published rankings for 150 straight months.
Ding’s dynasty appears unstable.
To make matters worse for the defending world champion, Alireza Firouzja delivered Ding Liren a crushing defeat in the third game of the open portion. Ding had stated to The Indian Express prior to the competition that he hoped to place higher than last in the Norway Chess event.
After losing to the Chinese world champion in Round 3, Ding has now dropped two games in a row. Ding is presently the second-ranked Chinese player in the rankings list, behind Wei Yi, as a result of the two losses.
Alireza, his opponent, expressed sympathy for him even after the game, saying, “Normally, I should be happy after a win.” He is obviously not performing at his best, though. Since I didn’t accomplish anything special in the game today—it was just that he wasn’t finding the right moves—I hope he gets back in shape.
At the Norway Chess tournament, round five begins on Saturday, June 1. Friday is the first of two rest days.
