Praggnanandhaa emerges runner-up in Chess World Cup
World champion Magnus Carlsen won the FIDE World Cup held in Baku by defeating India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the final today.
After they drew both their classical games, it came down to two rapid tie-breakers to select the winner. Carlsen won both, and in the process won his first World Cup title.
The two tie-break games in rapid format were played with a time control of 25 minutes for each player plus 10 seconds increment per move. If those two games failed to throw up a winner, two more games with a time control of 5 minutes for each player were to be played.
By reaching the semi-final, the 18-year-old Chennai boy had confirmed his candidature for the Candidates tournament in 2024 to challenge world chess champion Ding Liren of China.
With Carlsen officially declining to be part of the eight-player 2024 Candidates tournament in Toronto, leading to the World title match against Liren, Praggananadhaa, Caruana and Abasov (the other two semi-finalists) filled the three qualifying spots available from this competition.
