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File photo of R Praggnanandhaa in action© Twitter
R Praggnanandhaa impressed everyone by becoming the second Indian chess player ever in history after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to reach the final of Chess World Cup. He defeated Fabiano Caruana 3.5-2.5 in a tight semi-final clash to set up his match against five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen. While Praggnanandhaa has been quite impressive in the past couple of years, the challenge of facing a renowned player like Carlsen is always massive. The Norwegian grandmaster is a former five-time World Chess Champion and current four-time World Rapid Chess Champion and current six-time World Blitz Chess Champion. He claimed the top rank in the FIDE world chess rankings back in 2011 and only Garry Kasparov has spent more time as the top player in the world.
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa have faced each other a total of 19 times across various competitions with the World No. 1 enjoying the slightest of edges. In classical chess, they have played one game against each other and it ended in a draw. In Rapid/Exhibition games, Carlsen holds a 7-5 win advantage with six games finishing in a draw. As a result, it will not be unwise to say that the more experienced player holds the edge but it is the recent results that will give Praggnanandhaa hope.
The 18-year-old became the youngest person to defeat Carlsen since he became world champion in 2013. The historic victory came in in February 2022 at the Airthings Masters (an online rapid chess tournament). Cut to May 2022 and the youngster was once again the victor against Carlsen at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament – a win that earned him a lot of praise.
However, the biggest achievement for Praggnanandhaa came exactly one year ago when he defeated Carlsen in three consecutive games — one rapid and two blitz — at 2022 FTX Crypto Cup.
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