Magnus Carlsen wins his first World Cup while R Praggnanandhaa loses battle.No. 1 in the world In Baku, Azerbaijan, on Thursday, Magnus Carlsen overcame Indian grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to win the title of International Chess Federation World Cup. The Norwegian chess grandmaster managed to hold on for a draw in the second game with white pieces in the Rapid Chess tiebreaker after winning the first game with black pieces. A quicker-time control version of Rapid Chess is used for the tie-breaker.
Praggnanandhaa put up a valiant fight, but Carlsen used all of his expertise from huge games when it counted.
Earlier on Wednesday, both of the Classical Chess matches between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen ended in draws.
Despite having to settle for second place at the 2023 FIDE World Cup, Praggnanandhaa can take heart from the fact that he qualified for the FIDE Candidates competition.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament, an eight-player chess competition, will take place in Toronto, Canada, from April 2 to April 25, 2024. The event winner will represent the opposition in the 2024 World Chess Championship match.
Praggnanandhaa had a great tournament, beating World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana to advance to the final and World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in a tiebreaker.
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