Magnus Carlsen loses to R Praggnanandhaa for the first time in classical chess at Norway

In Stavanger, Norway, on Wednesday, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa of India won the third round of the Norway Chess competition, earning his first-ever classical victory over the top-ranked player in the world.

In the two men’s matches, Hikaru Nakamura overcame Alireza Firouzja in armageddon, while Fabiano Caruana won against Ding Liren. In the female division, over there. Vaishali held Anna Muzychuk, Pia Cramling drew with Ju Wenjun, and Humpy Koneru defeated GM Lei Tingjie.

Carlsen was surpassed by Praggnanandhaa, with Caruana coming in second. In the open rankings, the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster held the only lead, while Vaishali emerged victorious in the women’s standings during the third round.

His introduction encouraged thought. He wants to fight, I added, because he could play something solid otherwise. At all, I didn’t mind. The Indian Express cited Praggnanandhaa as saying following his victory, “We’ll fight and we’ll see how it goes.”

“I feel wonderful. The game had a lot of fascinating elements. From the outset, I was given a pretty good position. I played it a little too badly at one point. I was advised that I still played correctly when I let the bishop play on e3 and f6. Perhaps I improved during this part of the game.

When asked if this was one of his greatest victories, Praggnanandhaa replied, “I’ll have to check.” I felt that my performance was lacking. I did discover some brilliant moves. Undoubtedly, it’s not my best game, according to R Praggnanandhaa.

“I wish Magnus would take these chances against me or against Fabi,” Hikaru Nakamura remarked. My theory is that Magnus intentionally takes more chances when he plays the younger children than when he plays us older people because he wants to sort of prove a point, chase after them, and try to beat them.

“Obviously, a pretty risky opening choice today,” commented Carlsen after the defeat. However, I believe that move 10.h3 was a touch too mild. There, he considered it for a long while. He was probably figuring out f4 and queen c5. But that’s worse for Black people, in my opinion. That was a bit of a wasted move, then. Aside from that, h3 can occasionally be used to attack with queen and rooks. That one didn’t really impress me.