Chess
Norway Chess 2024: Vaishali beats Humpy; Pragg loses to Liren in 2nd round
R Vaishali registered her first classical win in the Norway Chess Women's Tournament, as Praggnanandhaa lost to world champion Ding Liren.
Vaishali is set too lead the Indian challenge at the first leg of FIDE Women's Grand Prix in Georgia. (Photo credit: Norway Chess)
Round 2 of the prestigious Norway Chess saw all three classical games ending up in a draw once again in Stavanger, Norway at the SpareBank 1 SR-Bank on Tuesday.
Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, and Ding Liren won with white in the subsequent Armageddon games, grabbing 1.5 points each.
India's prodigy R Praggnanandhaa, who went with a 2-0 head-to-head lead against world champion Ding Liren, played out his second classical draw in the round of the Norway Chess 2024 main event. The Chinese GM then emerged victorious in the Armageddon tie-breaker.
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 takes the lead in women's tournament
R Vaishali 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 a victory. She 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, boasting a live rating of 2495.8.
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
Main Event: Praggnanandhaa R vs Magnus Carlsen; Fabiano Caruana vs Ding Liren; Hikaru Nakamura vs Alireza Firouzja
Women's tournament: Anna Muzychuk vs Vaishali R; Pia Cramling vs Ju Wenjun; Koneru Humpy vs Lei Tingjie
