Praggnanandhaa Scores 1st Classical Win Vs. Carlsen, Leads In Norway

GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is the brand new chief at Norway Chess 2024 after beating world number-one GM Magnus Carlsen for the primary time in classical chess in Wednesday’s third spherical. Fabiano Caruana was the opposite participant to earn the total three factors for a classical win towards GM Ding Liren whereas GM Hikaru Nakamura beat GM Alireza Firouzja in armageddon.

All three clashes of Ladies’s Norway Chess had been determined within the armageddons in the present day. First it was GM Humpy Koneru who defeated GM Lei Tingjie on demand. Later within the day, GM Pia Cramling drew her recreation as White, giving the 1.5 factors to GM Ju Wenjun, after which GM Vaishali Rameshbabu held GMs Anna Muzychuk to a draw as Black to keep up her one-point lead within the standings.

Spherical 4 begins Thursday, Could 30, at 11 a.m. ET / 17:00 CEST / 8:30 p.m. IST.

Norway Chess Spherical 3 Outcomes

Open: Carlsen’s Dangerous Play Backfires

The standings modified dramatically as Praggnanandhaa, along with his win, took over the lead from Carlsen and Caruana is now in second place after bouncing again in one of the best ways potential from that disastrous armageddon recreation the opposite day.

Standings After Spherical 3 | Open

Praggnanandhaa-Carlsen 3-0

He felt like he had performed the worst recreation in a few 12 months’s time yesterday, however that did not cease Praggnanandhaa from enjoying a wonderful recreation in the present day and beat one of the best participant on the planet. After three attracts (two of which within the 2023 World Cup last) and dropping one recreation earlier than, the 18-year-old Indian GM punished dangerous play from Carlsen, who by no means castled and finally went down as his king could not discover a protected haven.

Carlsen performed the Paulsen/Kan variation of the Sicilian and in a manner that was moderately double-edged. On transfer 13 he made a critical inaccuracy, when Nakamura will need to have been jealous of Pragg’s place, as he famous within the confession sales space:

“I want Magnus would take these possibilities towards me or towards Fabi. I’ve this principle that when Magnus is enjoying the youthful children particularly he needs to form of show a degree, he needs to go after them and attempt to beat them and he takes much more dangers than he does towards us previous of us!”

He takes much more dangers than he does towards us previous of us!
—Hikaru Nakamura

Praggnanandhaa’s 20.Kh1 was maybe not probably the most vital, which gave Carlsen some hope to get again into the sport, however that really by no means occurred. Particularly 25.Qh5+ and 26.Rf3 had been spectacular strikes by Pragg, who continued to display machine-like accuracy, together with the stunning quiet however decisive transfer 35.Kh2!.

Scoring this nice win on the birthday of that different Indian prodigy, world championship contender GM Gukesh Dommaraju, confirmed that the profitable new Indian era is maturing. Praggnanandhaa: “I sort of really feel that I’ve sufficient expertise at this stage and I can beat these gamers, however I’ve to play my finest for that and that’s what I’m attempting to do. That’s sort of the mindset.

Here is GM Rafael Leitao‘s tackle the sport:

Caruana-Ding 3-0

It is fairly uncommon these to see a participant bringing a powerful new concept to the board, cooked up with the pc, that stunned the opponent. The reason being that each one prime gamers are utilizing the identical robust engines equivalent to Stockfish and Leela, and subsequently they’re all equals when it comes to entry to info.

Right now, Caruana did handle to convey an concept like that to the desk, and despite the fact that objectively talking it wasn’t groundbreaking, it undoubtedly had an impact on Ding. The concepts got here on transfer 12 and was particularly based mostly on White’s transfer 15.d4!.

Caruana was clearly pleased with it as he paid a go to to the confession sales space to speak about it, in his personal phrases for the primary time in about eight years. “I am fairly comfortable that I acquired this over the board though it’s not like White’s higher or something, however getting the primary shock in can’t be too unhealthy.”

“I believe that is my first time going within the confessional in like 8 years! I performed a brand new concept, it’s utterly new, and it’s in Ding’s favorite variation. He performed it within the Candidates, he performed it 1,000,000 occasions, and he is aware of most likely every little thing about it..nevertheless it seems to be like… pic.twitter.com/6Ws6aByUpa

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) Could 29, 2024

The world champion was quickly greater than 45 minutes down on the clock and clearly underneath stress, however initially performed fairly good strikes—however then the collapse got here in any case, and it was over shortly.

Nakamura-Firouzja 1.5-1

Firouzja stunned Nakamura with the Tarrasch, one thing the American GM stated he had forgotten to have a look at earlier than the sport. We all know this thanks to a different go to from Nakamura to the confession sales space, the streamer’s pure habitat the place he begins every confession along with his typical “Welcome again everybody!”

Associated to this, he shared some fascinating ideas about fashionable chess: “In some stage I’d say this symbolizes sort of the difficulty in a manner with chess nowadays, which is that you just’re enjoying with the white items and you’ll’t shock your opponent, I believe in lots of features it’s higher to be enjoying with the black items as a result of then you definitely get to shock your opponent. They’ve to spend so much of time and the onus is at all times on White to win the sport.”

Nakamura, who additionally stated Magnus has gone all-in & will doubtless win or lose!
“This symbolises the difficulty with chess nowadays, which is that for those who’re enjoying with the white items & you’ll be able to’t shock your opponent in lots of features it is higher to be enjoying with the black items!” pic.twitter.com/10Hy67iZgO

— chess24 (@chess24com) Could 29, 2024

Firouzja did not capitalize on his edge out of the opening and the sport quickly fizzled out to a draw. Nakamura was as soon as once more very assured within the armageddon recreation, this time with the white items. He famous that the place was a lot simpler for White to play, including: “He simply couldn’t discover the precise attacking strikes.”

Nakamura as soon as once more recapped his recreation afterward for his followers (welcome again everybody!) which you’ll take a look at under.

Nakamura will get to play with the white items once more tomorrow towards match chief Praggnanandhaa. Caruana additionally has White towards a wounded Carlsen, like final 12 months, when Caruana gained. Ding is Black towards Firouzja.

Ladies: Vaishali Maintains Lead

As quickly as all three classical video games had been over, it was clear that Vaishali was going to keep up her lead within the match. She ended up profitable her armageddon, like runner-up Ju.

Standings After Spherical 3 | Ladies

Muzychuk-Vaishali 1-1.5

Vaishali drew each of her video games with Muzychuk whereas managing to pay a bit, however not an excessive amount of, consideration to how her brother was doing in the present day. Afterward, she she stated she is not fascinated with the outcome (but): “I simply wish to take pleasure in this match. To have the ability to play such robust girl gamers, I simply wish to make use of this chance.”

The classical recreation was extra fascinating than the armageddon, and Vaishali’s prep was fairly spectacular:

Humpy-Lei 1.5-1

Like Firouzja and Nakamura, Humpy and Lei acquired a Tarrasch on the board that shortly led to an equal endgame, and with out a lot spectacle this recreation was drawn on transfer 36. Humpy then managed to outplay her opponent within the armageddon, who misplayed the endgame with simply seconds on the clock:

Cramling-Ju 1-1.5

After letting Humpy slip away within the first spherical, Cramling once more missed an ideal likelihood to achieve three factors for a classical win in the present day. For an occasion, she was utterly profitable towards the ladies’s world champion, however she solely seen it after she traded rooks.

The armageddon was an enormous combat that lasted 63 strikes, when Cramling needed to “resign to a draw.” She is dealing with tournament chief Vaishali subsequent, whereas tomorrow’s spherical can even see the all-Chinese language conflict between Lei and Ju, in addition to Humpy vs Muzychuk.

Spherical 4 Pairings