R Praggnanandhaa Registers First-ever Classical Win Over Magnus Carlsen at Norway Chess

India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen for his first-ever classical win over World No. 1 in the third round of the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Wednesday.

In the other men’s games, Fabiano Caruana was defeated Ding Liren as Hikaru Nakamura got the better of Alireza Firouzja in armageddon. Over in the women’s section. Humpy Koneru beat GM Lei Tingjie, Pia Cramling drew with Ju Wenjun and Vaishali held Anna Muzychuk.

Praggnanandhaa overtook Carlsen with Caruana being in second place. The 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster took the sole lead in the open section of the open standings as Vaishali took the top spot after the third round in the women’s standings.

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“His opening was provocative. I said he wants to fight, because otherwise he could play something solid. I didn’t mind at all. We’ll fight and we’ll see how it goes,” Praggnanandhaa was quoted as saying by The Indian Express after his victory.

“I’m feeling good. The game was quite interesting. I got a very good position from the opening. I kind of misplayed it at some point. I allowed bishop e3, f6… then I was told that I still played correctly. Maybe I was better throughout the game.”

Asked if this was one of his best wins, Praggnanandhaa said: “I don’t know, I will have to check. I didn’t think I played really well. I did find some best moves. It’s not my best game for sure,” R Praggnanandhaa said.

Hikaru Nakamura said: “I wish Magnus would take these chances against me or against Fabi. I have this theory that when Magnus is playing the younger kids specifically he wants to sort of prove a point, he wants to go after them and try to beat them and he takes far more risks than he does against us old folks!”

Carlsen, after the loss said: “Obviously, a pretty risky opening choice today. I think his move 10.h3, though, was a little bit soft. He thought about it for a long time there. I guess he was calculating f4 and queen c5. I don’t really think that’s worse for black. So that was a little bit of a waste of a move. Apart from that, sometimes h3 can be used for rooks and queen for attacks. I wasn’t overly impressed with that one.”