OSLO: Just as a very pleasant summer day in Norway's capital was starting to give way to something colder, R Praggnanandhaa created heat on the chess board to take down Magnus Carlsen for a second time in the same tournament. The 20-year-old Indian, who had beaten the Norwegian World No. 1 with the white pieces last week, repeated the same trick, this time with the black pieces.
With this victory, he also joins one of the very few players to have beaten the 35-year-old five-time world champion thrice in Classical chess. The signs about Carlsen being in danger were there even before the start of round eight. In his customary pre-round small interview with the local broadcaster, he admitted to 'feeling shit.'
And he played a very uncharacteristic match from start to finish. In the end, after he equalised a dicey-looking position, he walked his king into a forced checkmate as long as the young Indian could spot it. And Pragg, who himself has been having an up and down tournament, spotted the continuation.
After 47 moves, it was level. Seconds later, the mood changed in the commentary box as experienced broadcasters couldn't keep their excitement down. The eval bar jumped from 0.0 to #7 – in simple terms, a blunder of the highest order –after Carlsen's move to Kf4. WIth just 44 seconds on the clock, his opponent had to find 48. Qd4. And Pragg found it immediately. As soon as he played it, Carlsen's already shaky body language dropped. He fiddled around with the king for two more moves but he had already realised that his king was about to be barbecued on the board.
The win moves Praggnanandhaa to third on the table with two rounds to go. However, there was further disappointment as world champion D Gukesh again lost, this time to Alireza Firouzja in another wild game.
Carlsen, who collected a fourth Classical loss in eight, will hope this isn't the start of something terminal.