Norway Chess: Praggnanandhaa loses to Ding Liren, Vaishali beats Humpy

Stavanger: The second round of the Norway Chess saw all three classical games result in a tie once more, as Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, and Ding Liren triumphed with white in the subsequent Armageddon games to earn 1.5 points apiece.

India's prodigy Praggnanandhaa R, who had a 2-0 head-to-head advantage over world champion Ding Liren, played out his first classical draw in the round of the Norway Chess 2024 main event when the Chinese GM won the Armageddon tiebreaker.

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.

In the women’s event, Vaishali R 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 victory and 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.

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.

With inputs from IANS