New Delhi: The FIDE World Cup 2023 came to an end on Thursday with Magnus Carlsen, the world number one player, defeating R Praggnanandhaa, the Indian grandmaster, in the tiebreak. Praggnanandhaa’s father Ramesh Babu said that winning or losing the match was not important, but playing against the world number one was.
Ramesh Babu said that his son played against Magnus Carlsen, the world number one, in the final. He said that the outcome of the match was not important, but the experience of playing against the best player in the world was very valuable. He said that Praggnanandhaa would go to Germany for another tournament.
It is noteworthy that Praggnanandhaa lost to Magnus Carlsen by 1.5 – 0.5 in the tiebreak after drawing the classical matches in the final of the FIDE World Cup chess. The second 25 plus 10 tiebreak match ended in a draw after 22 moves. Carlsen, the great player from Norway, played defensively after winning the first match.
This is Carlsen’s first victory in the World Cup, but he has won the world championship five times. He faced a tough challenge from Praggnanandhaa, the 18-year-old Indian, in the tiebreak and won after 45 moves.
In the second match, however, he dominated and won easily. Before that, the two classical matches on Tuesday and Wednesday were drawn and the match went to the tiebreak.
Praggnanandhaa reached the final by beating Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana, the world number two and three players respectively, in the tournament. After this tournament, Praggnanandhaa qualified for the Candidates 2024 tournament which will be held in Canada. He became the third youngest player to qualify for this tournament after Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.
