R Praggnanandhaa Goes Down Fighting As Magnus Carlsen Wins First World Cup Title

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated India's grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to clinch the title of International Chess Federation World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday. The Norwegian chess grandmaster won the first game of the Rapid Chess tie-breaker with black pieces and manged to hold on for a draw in the second game with white pieces. The tie breaker is played in a Rapid Chess quicker-time control format.

Praggnanandhaa fought hard but fell short with Carlsen summoning all his big match experience when it mattered the most.

Earlier on Wednesday Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen drew both their games of Classical Chess.

Praggnanandhaa had to settle for the position of runner-up of the 2023 FIDE World Cup but he will draw hope from the fact that he has qualfied for the FIDE Candidates tournament.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament scheduled to be held from 2 April to 25 April 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The winner of the tournament will becomne the challenger for the 2024 World Chess Championship match.

Praggnanandhaa had an excellent tournament where he defeated World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in a tie-breaker while reaching the final defeating World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana.