Norway Chess 2024: R Praggnanandhaa creates history by defeating world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen

India's young Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa has created history by defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the Norway Chess 2024 tournament on Thursday.

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

With his first win in classical chess, Praggnanandhaa has secured the leader's position in Norway Chess 2024. After three rounds, the Indian Grandmaster has reached the top on the leader's board with 5.5 points. Next, Praggnanandhaa will be up against Hikaru Nakamura in the fourth round.

Praggnananda has become the fourth Indian chess player to defeat Magnus Carlsen in classical chess.18-year-old Indian has earlier defeated Carlsen in rapid/exhibition chess. Classical chess is known for slow chess. In this, players get a lot of time to make moves.

'not my best game for sure'

When asked in an interview how he was feeling after his celebrated win, Pragganandha said, “I didn’t think I played really well. It is not my best game for sure.”

Carlsen reached number 5 after losing to Praggnanandhaa

After this victory of Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen has now reached 5th position on the Norway Chess 2024 leadersboard with just 3 points. At the same time, Fabiano Caruana has reached second position with 5 points, Hikaru Nakamura has reached third position with 4 points and Alireza Firouzja has reached fourth position with 3.5 points.

Current world champion Ding Liren is in last place

The last three matches between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen in this format were draws. In other matches of the third round of the Norway Chess 2024 Tournament, World No. 2 player Fabiano defeated the current world champion Ding Liren of China. After this defeat, Liren has come to the last position in the list of six players.

Also Read: Jyothi Yarraji fails to touch Paris Olympics qualification mark by 0.01 seconds

R Vaishali held the top position

Praggnandhaa's sister R Vaishali held the top spot in the women's competition, also with 5.5 points. She drew her game against Anna Muzychuk.