Praggnanandhaa's heroic run ends as runner-up

Pragg's road to World Cup final

♦ Got a bye in first round.

♦ Defeated French Grandmaster Maxime Lagarde 1.5-0.5 in second round.

♦ Beat experienced Czech GM David Navara 1.5-0.5 in third round.

♦ Beat world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura of USA 3-1 in fourth round.

♦ Beat Hungarian Ferenc Berkes 1.5-0.5 in fifth round.

♦ Registered a come-from-behind 5-4 win over compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the sixth round.

♦ Beat Italian-American Grandmaster, Fabiano Caruana, ranked third in the world, 3.5-2.5 in the semifinal to become the youngest to reach the summit clash of the World Cup.

♦ Game 1 of Final on Tuesday ended in a draw after 35 moves.

♦ Game 2 between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen also ended in a quick draw in just 30 moves. *Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen returned on Thursday to play in the shorter time control games, with the Indian losing in the 2-game tie-break. Pragg loses the first tie-breaker and then draws the second game.

Baku (Azerbaijan): The brilliant run by India's Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the FIDE World Cup 2023 ended in the final on Thursday with the 18-year-old losing to World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the two-game rapid tie-break series. After holding the five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen to consecutive draws in the Classical games, the Grandmaster from Chennai, the youngest-ever to reach the FIDE World Cup final, lost the first rapid game under severe time pressure.

The second 25+10 tie-break game ended in a draw in 22 moves as Carlsen played it safe after he had won the first one, displaying his superior end-game skills. After a keenly contested first game, in which Carlsen overcame a stiff challenge from his 18-year-old Indian opponent in the first tie-break game by winning it in 45 moves, the second game was a rather tame affair with Praggnanandhaa falling behind quickly and agreeing to a draw.

The 32-year-old Norwegian, used his tremendous experience to squeeze out a win from an equal position, slowly pushing the Indian to the brink with brisk and precise moves, forcing Pragg to spend more time and thus land into severe time pressure. Faced with an all-out attack and with seconds on his clock, Pragg resigned.

In a must-win situation with black pieces in the second game, Pragg had to win to level the scores and force further tiebreaks, However, Praggnanandhaa could only manage a draw and thus lost the two-game tie-break 1.5-0.5.

Carlsen eventually won the final 2.5-1.5 to claim his maiden World Cup title. This was the only title missing from his cabinet. Carlsen finally won it in Baku, playing a good tactical game by conserving his energy by agreeing to quick draws in the two classical games and outwitting his young Indian opponent in rapid chess, a format in which the Norwegian is a four-time World Champion and thus fancies his chances. Praggnanandhaa thus ended up as the runner-up of the 2023 FIDE World Cup -- his best result in an official FIDE event at the senior level. Five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand wrote on social media platform 'X' after the final, "Praggnanandhaa can come back with a candidates spot and a truly wonderful result."

He congratulated Carlsen and wrote: "In the end, it's Magnus! His persistence is rewarded with a victory in the only tournament that eluded him so far! Congratulations to the #FIDEWorldCup2023 winner Magnus Carlsen!" The Indian teenager's coach R B Ramesh wrote on 'X': Congratulations @MagnusCarlsen for a well deserved World Cup title! Well done @rpragchess! Lots of good memories and some hard lessons as well. Onward !"