Chess World Cup: Praggnanandhaa goes down fighting to Carlsen in final

Chennai: World No. 1 chess player by rating, Norwegian Grandmaster (GM) Magnus Carlsen (32) won the FIDE World Cup after defeating Indian prodigy GM R. Praggnanandhaa (18) in tie-breaker at Baku in Azerbaijan on Thursday.

Former world champion Carlsen clinched the title by winning the first tie-breaker game and then drawing the second one.

In the second tie-breaker, Carlsen with white pieces seemed to be in a hurry to wind up the game soon and went in for Queen exchange at the 17th move.

Soon after, the two players exchanged their bishops. At the end of the 22nd move, both players had four pawns, one rook, knight and a bishop each. The two then signed the peace treaty.

Playing with white pieces in the first game of the tie-breaker, Praggnanandhaa had an advantage in the initial stages and later maintained equality for a large part of the 47-move game.

However, the Indian player suffered a reversal from the 37th move onwards. At that point of time, the players were left with two rooks and minor pieces -- two knights for Carlsen and a knight and a light coloured bishop for Praggnanandhaa.

The Indian player was also much behind on the clock and resigned on the 47th move.

It was the maiden World Cup title for Carlsen.