Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa beats Firouzja Alireza in the first round of Norway Chess tournament

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa made a great start in the Norway Chess Tournament here on Tuesday, defeating Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon match in the first round.

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After an easy draw in normal time control, R Praggnanadhaa got 10 minutes playing with white pieces while Alireza got seven but the condition was that they had to win because in case of a draw, the player playing with black pieces would get extra points. After this, Praggnanandhaa performed brilliantly and registered victory. 

In the men's and women's categories, all the matches were tied under classical time control and six Armageddon matches had to be played for the results.

World number one player Magnus Carlsen, after playing a draw with defending world champion Ding Liren in the classical game in 14 moves, maintained his upper hand by drawing the Armageddon game in 68 moves.

Hikaru Nakamura defeated compatriot American Fabiano Caruana in the Armageddon match.

After the first round, Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen and Nakamura are jointly leading with 1.5 points while Alireza, Liren and Caruana are half a point behind them.

Under Classical Time Control, each bet won gets three points, whereas in Armageddon bet, the winner gets 1.5 points and the loser gets one point.

In the women's category too, all three games of classical time control between six players were drawn. Koneru Humpy, playing with black pieces in the Armageddon game, scored one and a half points by holding Pia Cramling of Sweden to a draw.

R Vaishali, however, could only score one point against women's world champion Wenjun Ju, while China's TIngjie Lei defeated Ukraine's Anna Muzychuk in the Armageddon match.

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Results Round 1

Men: 

R Praggnanandhaa (Ind, 1.5) beat Firouzja Alireza (Fra) 1.5-1; Ding Liren (Chn, 1) lost to Magnus Carlsen (1.5) 1-1.5; Fabiano Caruana (Usa, 1) lost to Hikaru Nakamura (Usa, 1.5) 1-1.5. 

Women: 

Pia Cramling (Swe, 1) lost to Koneru Humpy (Ind, 1.5) 1-1.5; Wenjun Ju (Chn, 1.5) beat R Vaishali (Ind, 1) 1.5-1; Anna Muzychuk (Ukr, 1) lost to Tingjie Lei (Chn, 1.5) 1-1.5.