Bharatiya teenage chess sensation R Praggnanandhaa defeated the world number one Magnus Carlsen in the classical format for the first time at the ongoing Norway Chess tournament on Wednesday.
During round three, the 18-year-old battled the Norway star on his home turf and came out victorious to take the sole lead in the open section of the six-player tournament.
Using white pieces, the runners-up from last year’s FIDE Chess World Cup battled it out with some intelligent moves against Carlsen for a win.
At the end of the third round, Pragananadhaa’s tally is 5.5 out of nine points while Carlsen has slipped down to the fifth spot.
Earlier, Pragananadhaa had notched some wins over Carlsen in rapid and blitz chess games. Earlier on Tuesday, Round 2 of the prestigious Norway Chess saw all three classical games ending up in a draw again here at the SpareBank 1 SR-Bank on Tuesday.
Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Ding Liren won with white in the subsequent Armageddon games to grab 1.5 points each. Praggnanandhaa R, who went with a 2-0 head-to-head lead against World Champion Ding Liren, played out his first classical draw in the round of the Norway Chess 2024 main event. The Chinese GM then emerged victorious in the Armageddon tie-breaker, as per a press release from Norway Chess.
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