Magnus Carlsen upped his game for the big occasion today as he ended young pretender Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa’s unbeaten streak to go level at the top of the Oslo Esports Cup leaderboard.
The World Champion shrugged off the illness he has suffered since the start of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour event to brush aside the challenge of the in-form Indian teen with a dominant 3-0 win. With a game to spare, Carlsen grabbed the maximum 3 points and $7,500 win bonus to move alongside Praggnanandhaa on 9/12. It also took the Norwegian to five straight wins in rapid chess.
Carlsen, when asked whether he was feeling extra determination playing Praggnanandhaa, said: “I am the best — I don’t have any doubt about that, but you gotta prove it when you play!”
Praggnanandhaa had gone into the Round 4 match ahead of Carlsen having played fantastic chess on his way to three match-wins in a row. In doing so, Rameshbabu had also chalked up $22,500 in earnings and ignited hope he could win the first Major of the Tour season overall.
But against world No.1 Carlsen, the supremely-talented 16-year-old found himself up against next-level opposition.
Carlsen went into the match with a spring in his step that has been missing over the last couple of days during which he has complained about feeling under the weather.
In the first game, the young Indian showed no fear whatsoever as he opted for a Sicilian. But it was Carlsen who went on to take first blood. The champ overcame Pragg in a brilliant game that went right down to the wire when the champ showed his endgame prowess with the excellent 60.Qd6!
Magnus Carlsen – Praggnanandhaa R
White advances his pawn to a6 as both 60…Qxa5 and 60…Qe3+ fail to 61.Qe6+| 1-0, 76 moves
In between games, Carlsen said he was feeling "quite a lot better" - and it showed.
Pragg had to hit back. The youngster pushed aggressively in the second but then suffered an agonising mistake with 31.Bxd8 that lost a rook for a piece. It was a killer blow that lost the game and left him in a must-win situation going into the third game. Try as he might, Pragg could not hold back the tide and Carlsen broke through to finish him off in style.
The champ shook his young opponent’s hand when the victory was secured before saying Pragg still has a “great chance” to win the event.
Pragg said: "I think my play in the first and second games was good, but then in less time I started to play bad moves. Then in the third game I just didn't get the position.
"But I think it's a great experience for me and I always enjoy playing top players."
He added: “Next time I’d like to put up more resistance against Magnus!”
Vietnam’s Liem Quang Le also won his match against Eric Hansen with a game to spare, recording two wins in a 2.5-0.5 victory.
The two other R4 matches both went to nervy tiebreaks after the regular matches finished 2-2.
Poland's World Cup winner Jan-Krzysztof Duda, moved into contention after he beat Shakrhiyar Mamedyarov in a close match that went to tiebreaks. It was Duda's third win in a row and took him to 7/12.
Meanwhile, the tiebreak in the all-Dutch encounter between Anish Giri and Jorden van Foreest started dramatically as a mouse-slip from Giri in the first blitz game left him behind.
Giri then made a huge blunder in the second to hand the match to his countryman.
Round 5 of 7 starts at 18:00 CEST on Tuesday. Full coverage with commentary from the Oslo arena is available on chess24’s Twitch and YouTube channels.
For further comments contact:
Leon Watson leon@championschesstour.com
About the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour
The Champions Chess Tour is the leading online chess Tour worldwide determining the world's best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. The 2022 season begins in February 2022 and features monthly tournaments culminating in a Final in November 2022. The best chess players in the world are competing in rapid chess. All games take place online on www.chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.5 million. For more information visit www.championschesstour.com.
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