Praggnanandhaa vs Magnus Carlsen: How India's rising chess star eclipsed World No.1 twice in a week at Las Vegas Freestyle event
On Thursday, Praggnanandhaa stunned Carlsen in the classification game for a quarterfinal spot in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour's upper bracket in Los Angeles, denying him a direct entry into the top eight for the first time in the tour.
On Saturday, Praggnanandhaa found Carlsen standing in his way again, this time in the lower bracket of the LA leg. The Chennai lad was one notch above the Norwegian maestro in the 43-move game, forcing Carlsen to resign for his second win over the World No. 1.
What made this victory special was that Praggnanandhaa was coming off a gruelling 10-hour loss, stretching over seven straight games against American Fabiano Caruana in the upper bracket quarterfinals. The Indian prodigy described it as one of the 'craziest matches' he had ever played. He had regained ground after beating Germany's Vincent Keymer, but playing Carlsen is a herculean challenge even for one of the best next-generation stars.
The earlier loss on Thursday meant that Carlsen could no longer fight for the title, with his best possible finish now being third place in the overall standings. The rematch, for Carlsen, was a matter of pride after his title hopes had been dashed in Freestyle chess, his favourite variant. Praggnanandhaa's best possible finish is seventh place.
In this format, each game begins with randomly shuffled back-rank pieces, creating 960 possible starting positions. Designed to nullify established chess theory, it forces players into uncharted territory from the very first move.
Praggnanandhaa's second consecutive victory against the normally invincible Carlsen was no small feat. However, coming after Carlsen's twin losses to World Champion D Gukesh in the classical format at Norway Chess and in the rapid format at Croatia's SuperUnited tournament, defeat against Arjun Erigaisi at Paris leg of Freestyle event and a surprising draw against nine-year-old Indian Aarit Kapil in an online Blitz game, the Norwegian's aura of invincibility appears to be showing cracks.
But Carlsen, being the genius he is, fought back to beat Praggnanandhaa in the next three games to stay in the hunt for a podium finish on Saturday. Yet, Praggnanandhaa has emerged, by far, as the most competent Indian to take Carlsen head-on.
Whether it's Mikhail Tal's famous advice to Alexander Beliavsky to hone his intuition, or Garry Kasparov's enduring belief that it's 'intuition first, then calculation', the chess world's elite have consistently agreed on one principle: intuition trumps calculation. And, Carlsen has been vocal and direct in his assessment of the Indian prodigies, praising them as some of the best calculators in the game, though he believes their lack of intuitive play leaves them vulnerable.
'What most of them (Indian players from this generation) have in common is that their calculation is extremely good. Even those players who have zero understanding of the game, they calculate so well that, with longer time controls, they can still get by and give even people like me a really, really hard time,' Carlsen had remarked earlier.
Carlsen once compared Indian players to their Chinese counterparts, noting greater stylistic diversity among the latter. 'There's a bigger variety within Chinese players. You have the World Champion Ding (Liren)… who's not doing great at the moment, but at his peak, he was an incredible, intuitive, dynamic player. So, very different styles there,' Carlsen had observed last year.
Praggnanandhaa, however, has managed to quash this perception of Carlsen. Learning from Kasparov's 'trusting your guts' advice, the young Indian's game has the required element that has bothered even the best of talents.
Carlsen famously applauded Praggnanandhaa after the Indian put up a tremendous fight at the Julius Baer Generation Cup in September 2022, where the Norwegian barely escaped with a draw against the then 16-year-old. By then, Praggnanandhaa had already beaten Carlsen multiple times to gain his respect.
Magnus Carlsen gives 17-year-old Praggnanandhaa a quick round of applause and thumbs up after a fantastic fight ends in a draw! https://t.co/vZ7lfuj0ws #ChessChamps #JuliusBaerGenerationCup pic.twitter.com/BdbirJbWyZ
— chess24 (@chess24com) September 19, 2022
https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js
The year 2023 was a breakout one for Praggnanandhaa. He stormed into the FIDE World Cup final, defeating some of the biggest names in the circuit, including Carlsen's long-time arch-rival, Hikaru Nakamura. His victory over Nakamura was so impressive that it drew Carlsen away from his own match to congratulate the teenager with a pat on the back and heartfelt praise: 'We all want to be like you today.'
Incidentally, Praggnanandhaa faced Carlsen in that World Cup final. At one stage, he nearly denied the Norwegian his last major title, playing two sublime games in the Classical format and forcing the final into tiebreaks. However, Carlsen — clearly superior to Praggnanandhaa in shorter time controls — prevailed over the Indian, ending his long wait for a coveted World Cup gold.
Though a heartbroken Praggnanandhaa lost to Carlsen on what was perhaps the biggest stage after the latter relinquished his World Championship title, the Indian's composure and playing style made one thing clear: Praggnanandhaa was destined to trouble Carlsen in the months and weeks to come.
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