Unless there are unlikely coincidences, Magnus Carlsen will fail in one of his most important goals this year: winning the tough Norway Chess tournament in Oslo, very close to his home. His 2nd defeat in a week against the 20-year-old Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa places him second to last with two rounds remaining, with American Wesley So in the lead. Kazakh Bibisara Assaubayeva is almost certain to win the women’s tournament.
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Carlsen has said before—and in this he agrees with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik and other elite players—that Praggnanandhaa has more talent than the other very young Indian chess stars: Dommaraju Gukesh (current world champion), Arjun Erigaisi, and Nihal Sarin; however, Praggnanandhaa (17th in the world at 20 years old before his game with the number one) has not shone as much as expected over the past year. That said, their head-to-head in classical chess was even when they met this Tuesday, thanks to Praggnanandhaa’s victory last week in the first round of Norway Chess: two wins each and four draws.
Among Indian chess journalists, the idea is spreading that the recent stagnation in the results of Gukesh, Erigaisi, and Praggnanandhaa has a common factor: the lives of the three revolve solely around chess, and nothing else, since they were prodigies and stopped attending school very early; this extreme specialization may cause a psychological imbalance that hinders performance at the highest level. In contrast, Carlsen has a broad general culture because he was comprehensively educated by his parents and never left school, not even when he started traveling extensively to play tournaments.
In any case, the psychological situation before this Tuesday’s mental battle at the Deichman public library (a splendid venue for the tournament, next to Oslo’s harbor) was tense: Carlsen was almost obliged to win if he wanted to fight for first place in the last two rounds; mathematically, the Indian was also in the same position, as he had the same points as the Norwegian, but the pressure on him is nowhere near what is expected of the number one.
Perhaps for that reason, Carlsen again spent—like in other games of this tournament—much more time than usual during the opening phase, after the ceremonial first move on some boards by students from La Granja school in León, who had participated in the morning in the Chess for Peace tournament, with giant recycled rubber boards and pieces, next to the Nobel Prize building.
Moreover, the position after the first fifteen moves was quite complex and very difficult to evaluate: better piece play by the Scandinavian but two central pawns for the Asian that could be important in the medium term. After the twentieth move, Carlsen had 20 minutes to reach the 40-move control, compared to 48 for Praggnanandhaa. In the VIP room (next to the press room), the Norwegian’s wife and father kept poker faces while chatting with other guests, but occasionally glanced sideways at the clock counts on the giant screens.
The objective situation remained difficult to assess: more active pieces for Carlsen, but down a pawn. At that moment, Praggnanandhaa found a beautiful way to activate his dormant bishop. Carlsen’s clock dropped to 15 minutes, then 10, then 5.5… and then the number one chose the most complicated reasonable response in the fight for the three points he needed while the leader, So, tried to score 1.5 in the sudden death against German Vincent Keymer.
After an exchange of precise blows, it was Praggnanandhaa who had the choice to force a draw by repetition or keep fighting. He was brave, while So achieved his goal and consolidated his lead, increasing the pressure on Carlsen.
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And, right there, the number one lost control of his emotions and got into a clearly inferior position in his eagerness to avoid a draw. Praggnanandhaa, with 15 minutes to his rival’s two, took advantage of the moment and gained a clear advantage. Meanwhile, second place Frenchman Alireza Firouzja had a crushing position against Gukesh; even more pressure on Carlsen. But Praggnanandhaa eased up a bit and missed the most troublesome moves, although he kept pressing. And again, the number one refused to acknowledge that the reasonable thing was to draw and try to win the tiebreak; he walked into the lion’s den and was devoured by the Indian.
“It’s very frustrating because I played quite well for several hours, until my huge mistake,” the Norwegian managed to say to his country’s television after several gestures of fury. Praggnanandhaa showed his usual modesty: “Fortunately, I had analyzed that French Defense variation not long ago, and thanks to that I got out of the opening avoiding traps. Then I managed to keep the pressure for a long time but he defended well. And, to my surprise, when the draw seemed certain, he collapsed.”
In December 2016, in New York, after defending his world title against Russian Sergey Karjakin, Carlsen admitted to EL PAÍS that emotional control was his weakest point. Everything indicates it still is.
Results of round 8: Firouzja – Gukesh, white wins; Carlsen – Praggnanandhaa, black wins; So – Keymer, draw, white wins. Women’s: Jiner Zhu – Wenjun Ju, white wins; Anna Muzychuk – Koneru, draw, draw; Desmukh – Assaubayeva, black wins.
Standings: 1st So 14 points; 2nd Firouzja 13; 3rd Praggnanandhaa 12; 4th Keymer 10; 5th Carlsen 9; 6th Gukesh 8.
Women’s: 1st Assaubayeva 15.5; 2nd Anna Muzychuk 10.5; 3rd-4th Desmukh and Jiner Zhu 10; 4th Wenjun Ju 9; 6th Koneru 8.
Round 9 (THURSDAY, 17:00, after Wednesday’s rest): Keymer – Firouzja; So – Carlsen; Gukesh – Praggnanandhaa. Women’s: Desmukh – Jiner Zhu; Assaubayeva – Anna Muzychuk; Koneru – Wenjun Ju.
