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Praggnanandhaa beats world chess champion Magnus Carlsen

The win in the third rapid game meant that Carlsen took his total to 16 points, and thus emerged the champion, winning the FTX Crypto Cup for the second year in a row…reports Asian Lite News

India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa came back strongly from a game deficit to stun world champion Magnus Carlsen in tiebreaks in the seventh and final round thus finishing runner-up in the FTX Crypto Cup, the second major on the Champions Chess Tour.

Starting the round two points behind the Norwegian Carlsen, the 17-year-old Pragg was looking down and out after losing the third of the four rapid games. But Carlsen, who was steering the fourth game to a draw, blundered in the endgame and the Indian capitalised on it to take the match into blitz tiebreaks.

In the four rapid games, Praggnanandhaa created a number of chances in the drawn first game, defended superbly in the second — another draw –, went down in a tense third encounter before capitalising on Carlsen’s mistake to win the fourth.

He dominated the blitz games to win two points, taking his total to 15. Iranian-French teenager Alireza Firouzja claimed three points in the final round to tie with Pragg at 15 points but eventually had to be satisfied with the third place.

The win in the third rapid game meant that Carlsen took his total to 16 points, and thus emerged the champion, winning the FTX Crypto Cup for the second year in a row.

Carlsen notched up a third win of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour season and his first Major win. The result also stretches his lead at the top of the USD1.6 million Tour leaderboard and wins him the tournament’s unique NFT trophy.

Pragg and Carlsen were neck-and-neck throughout the whole tournament with the youngster putting in a real statement performance throughout.

But in Round 7 of the all-play-all event, Pragg faced the real acid test — world No. 1 Carlsen. The youngster had chances in the first game and then had to defend like a lion in game 2. Finally, he ran out of steam in the third.

Carlsen clinched the win that guaranteed him the title and in classic Magnus-style — with a piece of endgame brilliance and a huge sense of relief, according to a release on Sunday by the organisers of the event, Play Magnus Group.

Reacting before the final rapid game, Carlsen said, “This game was very nervy, I think, for both of us. Today I haven’t been able to find a rhythm at all, but hopefully I can relax a bit in the last game.”

Carlsen did relax — but it barely mattered to him. In the fourth game, the champion looked to be steering the game to a draw but blundered in the endgame.

“I think Magnus just wanted to have more fun!” Pragg, who still had work to do to finish second, was quoted as saying in the release.

In the final tiebreak, Pragg won the first and then ended it in a dramatic second game in which Carlsen blundered badly. Pragg ended the tournament on a high, securing the runner-up spot.

Carlsen hailed his tournament win a “great result”.

The USD210,000 elite esports tournament, held at Florida’s Eden Roc Miami Beach, had gone into its final day with all eyes on Carlsen and Pragg’s eagerly-awaited showdown.

But in the other matches, Alireza Firouzja was battling to overtake Pragg at the last hurdle and secured at least a third place finish with a 2.5-1.5 win over Levon Aronian.

The struggles continued for 19-year-old New Yorker Hans Niemann, who has entertained everyone throughout with his interviews. Niemann finished pointless as he went down 2.5-1.5 to Vietnam’s Liem Quang Le.

However, the newly-crowned “bad boy of chess” can take away from the tournament memorable wins over Carlsen, Pragg and Aronian, plus an army of new fans.

Jan-Krzysztof Duda, the winner of the Oslo Esports Cup, finished off his tournament with a 2.5-0.5 win over Dutch No.1 Anish Giri.

Duda had a tough start to the event but finished with impressive wins over Carlsen, Pragg and then Giri.

The Meltwater Champions Chess Tour will return with its next “regular” event on September 19.

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Magnus Carlsen to give up World Championship title

The 31-year-old Norwegian is not retiring and vows “to be the best in the world, and not care about the World Championship!”…reports Asian Lite News

Magnus Carlsen, the five-time World Chess Champion, on Wednesday relinquished his title as he announced that he will not defend the title he has held since 2013.

Carlsen, considered by many as the greatest player to play the game who achieved the highest rating ever in chess, has conveyed his decision to Fide, the sport’s world governing body, according to a report by Chess24.com. Carlsen won his first title in 2013 by beating India’s Viswanathan Anand in Chennai.

The 31-year-old Norwegian is not retiring and vows “to be the best in the world, and not care about the World Championship!”

His decision not to defend his title means that Chinese world no. 2 Ding Liren’s last-round Candidates Tournament win against Hikaru Nakamura has earned him a lucrative match against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The World no. 1 had, soon after winning his fifth title by beating Nepomniachtchi in Dubai in 2021, had indicated that he is unlikely to defend his title if someone other than 19-year-old sensation Alireza Firouzja qualifies for the World Championship match. Firouzja did not qualify and Carlsen announced in a podcast interview, to his friend Magnus Barstad, called “The Magnus Effect”, that he will not defend his title.

“Ultimately the conclusion stands, one that I’m pretty comfortable with, one that I’ve thought a lot about for a long time now, I would say more than a year, probably a year and a half almost, since long before the last match. And I’ve spoken to people in my team, I’ve spoken to FIDE, I spoke to Ian as well. And the conclusion is, yeah, it’s very simple, that I am not motivated to play another match. I simply feel that I don’t have a lot to gain, I don’t particularly like it, and although I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons and all of that, I don’t have any inclination to play and I will simply not play the match,” Carlsen said in the interview.

He said that he had conveyed his decision to Fide officials in Madrid early this month when it became clear that Ian Nepomniachtchi will earn a World Championship rematch.

Carlsen is not the first World Champion to refuse his title. Before him Anatoly Karpov had done that in 2000 and also China’s Hou Yifan also refused to defend her Women’s World Chess Championship title in 2016. Both Karpov and Yifan were unhappy with the rules set by Fide for the events and thus withdrew.

The most famous case of a World Chess Champion refusing to defend his title was that of American legend Bobby Fischer, who refused to play Karpov in 1975 as his demands were not met by Fide.

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