Praggnanandhaa, India’s 18-year-old phenom of the 64 squares, managed to defeat World No 1 Magnus Carlsen for the first time in a classical game late on Wednesday in a round 3 match at the Norway Chess, Carlsen’s home tournament.
What made the day sweeter was that while Praggnanandhaa ends the day at the top of the open standings, Vaishali ended the third round at the top of the women’s standings.
Carlsen threw what he himself termed a ‘risky’ opening at Praggnanandhaa, trying to surprise the teenager from Chennai. But the ploy backfired. Despite being caught off guard, Praggnanadhaa managed to soon pile on the pressure on the five-time world champion.
“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 told The Indian Express after the victory.
Hikaru Nakamura, who was passing by after his game, remarked to Norway’s TV 2 Sport that Carlsen would only play such risky openings against a youngster, but not against veterans like himself or Fabiano Caruana.
What was remarkable about the win for Praggnanandhaa was that the 18-year-old was trailing on the clock for most of the match against Carlsen.
“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,” Pragg told select journalists in Stavanger after the win.
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.”
Carlsen himself made a couple of appearances in the confessional booth — a novelty that has been around at Norway Chess since 2015 — during the game.
“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,” said Carlsen in the confessional booth in the middle of the game.
Pragg was trailing on the clock from very early on. By move 10, Carlsen already had a 20-minute advantage on the clock. Over the next four moves, the Indian teen had just one hour on the clock with 26 more moves to make to beat the first time control.
On move 13, when Carlsen slid his queen to d7, the eval jumped to indicate an advantage for Pragg.
After move 15, Carlsen made another quick pit stop at the confessional booth.
“I’m a little bit scared that he’s going to go fe6 and knight d5 now. I’ll take the knight and maybe I’ll castle queenside. But it looks quite scary. I doubt that it’s objectively good for white, although I’m not quite sure. I feel that in other lines I’ll be alright. BUt knight d5 scares me a bit,” smiled Carlsen before walking out of the confessional booth.
The game started with plenty of interest in the playing hall which is ordinarily as quiet as a library as about 50 or so impeccably-dressed employees from a financial firm were present for the opening moves of all the six games. But most of them were focussed only on the Pragg vs Carlsen game, almost forming a long line in front of their board to take photos.
The game itself started with Pragg taking 31 seconds before playing 1.e4, prodding ahead his king’s pawn, which is arguably the most popular opening move with white. Carlsen responded by nonchalantly sliding his pawn to c5. An Open Sicilian then makes an appearance.
Speaking later on, Pragg said: “My prep stopped at bishop d3. I didn’t think he would play this and also queen c7 was a surprise. I couldn’t remember anything after that.”
