Norway Chess: Pragg defeats Carlsen in classical chess for first time

Indian chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen for the first time in classical chess to take the sole lead after round three of the 2024 Norway Chess tournament late Wednesday night.

This is the first win in the classical format for the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster who beat Carlsen on his home turf on white pieces.

Carlsen started with a risky opening against the Indian youngster and it was duly punished by the brilliant gameplay of Pragg. 

With this win, Pragg took the complete three points and became the sole leader on the points table with 5.5. He is closely followed by Fabio Carauna at number two who defeated World Champion Ding Liren to take the full three points.

Magnus dropped to fifth rank after the loss while Hikaru Nakamura is in third place and Alireza Firouza in fourth place.

Vaishali sole leader in women's event

In the women's event, Indian Grandmaster R Vaishali continued her good form and defeated GM Anna Muzychuk in the Armageddon match. Earlier yesterday, Vaishali had got the better of her fellow GM Koneru Humpy.

The other two clashes also went to Armageddon where Humpy Koneru defeated GM Lei Tingjie on demand and Pia Cramling lost the Armageddon game against Ju Wenjun of China.