Chess FIDE World Cup 2023 Final: Game 1 between R Praggnanandhaa, Magnus Carlsen ends in draw

Published at :August 22, 2023 at 11:36 PM

Modified at :January 13, 2024 at 6:13 PM

(Courtesy : @FIDE_chess/Twitter/Stev Bonhage)

The pair mutually agreed to end the match and will now meet tomorrow for game 2.

Young R Praggnanandhaa held World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in Game 1 of the classical round in the finals of the ongoing Chess FIDE World Cup 2023 in Baku, Azerbaijan. Playing with the white piece, Praggnanandhaa started off on an aggressive note, putting the World No. 1 in trouble in some moments before finally offering peace in Game 1 of the final.

The first game of the #FIDEWorldCup final between Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen ends in a draw after 35 moves. Magnus will be White in tomorrow's second classical game.📷 Stev Bonhage pic.twitter.com/UXpcbQxIfN
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 22, 2023

Having beaten the Norwegian already a number of times, R Praggnanandhaa would be raring to go against Magnus when the former plays with black, the colour through which Praggnanandhaa secured his first-ever win over Magnus. As aforementioned, Praggnanandhaa started the game with quick moves, looking like someone who had a plan for the day.

Magnus Carlsen was forced to take his time and thread his moves carefully. For the uninitiated, the format of the game allowed the players to take 90 minutes for the first 40 moves and then 30 more minutes for the rest of the game. Having been pushed on the back foot, Carlsen turned around the game on the 14th move, forcing Praggnanandhaa to take even more than 17 minutes for his following moves.

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Ultimately, the two players couldn’t be separated after 35 moves in Game 1 and settled for half points each from the game. Praggnanandha was about to finish his allotted 90 minutes while Magnus Carlsen had well over 30 minutes on the clock.

Praggnanandhaa will be defending with Black on August 23 (Wednesday) in Game 2 of the classical round as he hopes to win his first title. Magnus Carlsen, also competing for his first-ever FIDE World Cup title, would fancy his chances and feel confident having done the hard work of defending Praggnanandhaa’s white.

The final of the tournament is a three-day affair, with the final winner to be declared on 24th August 2023, Thursday, after seven games of chess are played by the two grandmasters.

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