Norway Chess 2024, Round 2: Vaishali beats Koneru in classical game; Praggnanandhaa loses to reigning World Champion Ding Liren in Armageddon

Round 2 of the prestigious Norway Chess saw all three classical games ending up in a draw once again here at the SpareBank 1 SR-Bank on Tuesday.

Koushik BiswasMay 29, 2024, 12:11 PM IST2 min read
Norway Chess 2024, Round 2: Vaishali beats Koneru in classical game; Praggnanandhaa loses to reigning World Champion Ding Liren in Armageddon
Round 2 of the prestigious Norway Chess saw all three classical games ending up in a draw once 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.
India's prodigy 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.
Norway Chess 2024, Round 2: Vaishali beats Koneru in classical game; Praggnanandhaa loses to reigning World Champion Ding Liren in Armageddon - sportzpoint.com
In the highly anticipated pairing of the day, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played out a closely contested classical game that ended in a draw. Carlsen, demonstrating his exceptional skill under pressure, managed to secure a crucial victory, adding to his impressive Armageddon record and taking the lead of 3 points in tournament standings.
Meanwhile, Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana also drew their classical game after a complex struggle. Firouzja's abilities in speed chess shone through in the Armageddon game as he bagged a crucial 1.5 points.

Vaishali beats Koneru to take lead in Women's tournament

Vaishali R defeated fellow Indian Koneru Humpy to register her first classical win in the Norway Chess Women's Tournament. Despite Humpy's slight advantage in the opening, a critical blunder under time pressure allowed Vaishali to claim victory and claimed her first-ever win against India’s number one female player and became India’s number two female player on the live rating list.
The other two classical matches between Lei Tingjie and Pia Cramling along with Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk ended up in hard-fought draws. The Chinese duo of Wenjun and Tingjie emerged victorious in their respective Armageddon games.

Round 3 Pairings

Norway Chess main event
Praggnanandhaa R vs Magnus Carlsen; Fabiano Caruana vs Ding Liren; Hikaru Nakamura vs Alireza Firouzja
Norway Chess Women's Tournament
Anna Muzychuk vs Vaishali R; Pia Cramling vs Ju Wenjun; Koneru Humpy vs Lei Tingjie
[ Written from a press release. ]

Koushik Biswas

Koushik Biswas is the founder and content head of Sportz Point. He has been a sports lover since his childhood, idolising Sachin Tendulkar, Zaheer Khan and Lionel Messi. Koushik played cricket for 7 years and has a passion for every sport. His nack for analysing games and talking about sports has helped him create hundreds of content for Sportz Point.

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