Magnus Carlsen caught Praggnanandhaa in the lead of the Oslo Esports Cup after scoring a crushing 3:0 victory in their Round 4 match. The World Champion, who has now won five rapid games in a row, said afterwards, “I am the best — I don't have any doubt about that, but you gotta prove it when you play!” Liem Quang Le also won with a game to spare, against Eric Hansen, while Jorden van Foreest and Jan-Krzysztof Duda both won blitz playoffs 2:0, against Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa shook hands before the battle began
You can replay all the games from the Oslo Esports Cup using the selector below.
And here’s the day’s live commentary from Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev, with Jan Gustafsson, Sagar Shah and Daniel King joining Tania for the Pre-Show.
And from David Howell, Jovanka Houska, Kaja Snare and Simon Williams at the Oslo venue.
Use the code ESPORTSCUP to get 40% off when you Go Premium during the event!
We haven’t had an Armageddon yet in Oslo, but two matches went to blitz chess on Monday.
All eyes were on the showdown between World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen and 16-year-old rising star Praggnanandhaa in Round 4, with Pragg tweeting that he was excited while Magnus commented, “Suit up!”
The match lived up to the hype from the very first game. Magnus needed to win in rapid chess to catch his opponent in the tournament standings, and commented when asked about his strategy:
I didn’t really have a plan. The only thing I thought was that I would probably do well to hit in the first game, and after I managed to do that, I was always the favourite to win the match.
Pragg went for a bold opening choice as he played one of Magnus’ favourites, the Sicilian Rossolimo, and he then surprised Peter Leko by grabbing a pawn when 11…Ne6 looked like the safer option.
A tactical skirmish followed, with Pragg correctly going for 15…Bxh3!
You can’t take the bishop due to 16.gxh3? Qg5+!, picking up the rook on e7, but after 16.Rxb7 Magnus went on to steer the game into a queen ending where he had an extra pawn, but converting it to a win was a far from foregone conclusion, especially as the World Champion still looked under the weather. His hopes rested on tactical details.
Here, for instance, the key point is that 36…Qxc3? can’t be played, since 37.Qe3+! would exchange queens, with a simple win for the white pawns.
Magnus kept using little ideas like that as he advanced his king all the way to e7, when 60.Qd6! ensured the a-pawn would advance.
The trick with 60…Qxa5? 61.Qe6+! and mate-in-3 was one of the last that needed to be seen, and after 60…Qf3 61.a6 it was just a matter of time until the useful checks ran out for Black. Pragg resigned on move 76.
Praggnanandhaa didn’t allow that setback to affect how he played the opening of Game 2, with Magnus admitting things were tough.
The second game I think I was considerably worse. He did really well in the opening, but I think once he allowed me some counterchances he started to play a bit uncertainly.
Pragg had won the initial battle, but the way Magnus regrouped was impressive.
Here he went for the sliding queen manoeuvre 16…Qc7 17.Rac1 Qd7 18.Qb1 Qe8 and suddenly his position looked much healthier, then 23…Bd7! was a subtle move that impressed both Peter Leko and Praggnanandhaa’s coach, Ramesh.
There were ways for White to keep an edge, but Pragg went for 24.Bxd7?! Rxd7 25.Nf5, perhaps overlooking the retreat 25…Bd8! (25…Bf8? would lose to 26.Nxh6+!, exploiting that the f6-knight is undefended)
Pragg’s advantage had gone, and here he went astray with 26.Rd4?!, a move Magnus referred to after the round.
I think he started to really drift with his rook lift, which is something that he has done against me before in Wijk aan Zee, the same thing. It’s also a bit typical of younger players to play a bit too ambitiously in such positions and try to play for an attack when there isn’t necessarily one and a more positional solution is called for. Anyway, he made a blunder there later on, but I think at that point I’d already taken over the initiative and he was pretty short on time.
The blunder that finally decided the game was 30.Bxd8?, which was hit by a move that made Pragg facepalm — capturing the rook on f4 with 30…Nxf4!
Pragg was clearly relying on 31.Bxb6, but realised only now that Magnus would reply 31…Rxc1+! 32.Qxc1 Ne2+, forking the king and queen and winning the game.
Pragg tried to play on with 31.Nd4, but after 31…Qe4 Magnus traded down into an endgame where he was simply an exchange up. There was no way back, with Pragg resigning 7 moves later in the following position.
The bishop on d8 is trapped, with Ra8 set to follow.
That game left Praggnanandhaa with a mountain to climb — he needed to win the next two games on demand simply to reach tiebreaks. Peter Leko noted that Magnus used all his experience to pick an opening system where Black needed to display accuracy simply to hold the balance, never mind to attack. In the circumstances, however, Pragg couldn’t resist a despairing lunge with 24…Rh4? And after 25.Rfc1! Qd6 White was winning in various ways.
The most dramatic was in fact 26.g3! Rxh3 27.Qd4! when Black has to switch to defence, while the queen will swing to a4 and the whole black queenside collapses.
Magnus chose the simpler and calmer 26.Kf1, but it was just as effective, with Black busted after 26…Rh5?! 27.Qa6! The rest was easy, with Magnus finishing with a mating attack.
32.Rxf8+! Kxf8 33.Qc8+ Ke7 34.Ba3+ Kf6 35.Qd8+ and Pragg resigned, since it would be checkmate next move.
Once again Pragg had played only three games, and although this time things hadn’t gone his way, he stayed objective afterwards. He summed up:
My play in the 1st and 2nd games was good, but then in less time I started to play bad moves. Ok, in the 3rd game I just didn’t get the position, and then I tried this Rh4, but ok, it was nothing. But I think it’s a great experience for me, and I always enjoy playing top players, and of course definitely playing Magnus is always a fun thing!
Does it motivate him to get better?
Next time I would definitely like to put up better resistance against Magnus. I think that’s a great motivation to work even harder.
Magnus, meanwhile, is on fire, having won his last five rapid games, including the last two against Anish Giri. Asked whether he’d had extra determination to show he was the best, he responded:
Yeah, I wanted to win the tournament… but I am the best! I don’t have any doubt about that, but you gotta prove it when you play. Clearly for the tournament this is very, very important.
Just one other match was over in three games.
Liem Le had beaten Magnus Carlsen but lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Praggnanandhaa. It was hard to know what to expect in Round 4, but in the end he dominated Eric Hansen almost from start to finish, with Eric needing to put up a tough defence to hold the first game in 60 moves.
Liem said that Game 2 was critical, with the f4-f5 break proving decisive.
28…gxf5 29.Qd1! was the point, with the threat of Qxh5+ suddenly leaving the black king in great danger. Eric fought on, but 57.Bc4! was a nice zugzwang to finish.
Black can only choose between moves that give up a pawn.
Eric needed to hit back and clearly came armed with an appropriate playlist…
…but nothing went right in the game. As he summed up:
This last game was just awful. I just got a really, really bad position in a critical game and had to suffer for one hour and still lose.
He summed up the event:
Every day you’re playing somebody who can do this to you. Every day somebody can knock you out!
Jan-Krzysztof Duda is just two points behind leaders Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa after defeating Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, but it wasn’t as easy a day at the office as it initially looked likely to be. Duda, who had won his last two matches, got off to a fast start when Mamedyarov’s aggression backfired.
20…Nxg3! was in fact a sound sacrifice, but after 21.hxg3 the better follow-up was 21…Rxe3! instead of Shakh’s 21…Bxg3+. Duda made what followed look very easy.
For a while in Game 2 it seemed as though Duda might take a 2:0 lead when he found some fine tactics.
Eventually, however, the game fizzled out into a draw. Jan-Krzysztof had White in the next game and no need to take any risks, but one careless choice on move 15 condemned him to a painful loss. He admitted it was tough to take.
It was very important actually not to lose the 4th game, because of course I was pretty disappointed, pretty tilted, but I had more than 20 minutes, so it was helpful, in a way.
Game 4 was drawn, and for the second time in the tournament Duda scored a 2:0 victory in blitz. It was largely an impressive display, though the first blitz game might have gone differently.
21.Bxg7! and Shakh would have had good winning chances, but after 21.Bxh3?! Bxb2! (exploiting the undefended queen on e2) 22.Rab1 Bg7 23.e5?! Bxe5 24.Re1 Bg7 Duda took over and went on to win.
Shakh didn’t seem to recover from that blow, since the second blitz game was over almost before it had really begun. 19…Nh5? walked into 20.Bxf7+!
20…Kxf7 21.Qc4+ Kg6 22.Re6+ and Black was completely busted.
For a second time in the tournament in a match featuring Anish Giri all four rapid games were drawn, though not without some entertainment. Jorden commented:
I’m quite satisfied. I think I played very well, especially with the black pieces. This going for the King’s Indian every game was a bit of a gamble, but I figured it might suit my style, and I think in every game I was doing pretty well there.
As well as the King’s Indian he also played 1.Nc3 with White in Game 2, but there was no stopping the all-Dutch clash going to tiebreaks. Anish felt that the first blitz game was the best he played all day, but it had a tragi-comic conclusion.
On move 43 Anish actually had a fleeting chance to win, but the idea behind 43…Qf1+! Involved some tricky tactics down the line.
The brazen capture of the pawn on g3 is possible since Qxg3 runs into Qd5 checkmate!
Instead play continued 43…Qd5 44.Qe2 and we got a mouse-slip.
Anish explained that he initially intended to play 44…Qh1+, then wanted to switch to 44…Ne4, but somehow managed to play 44…Qe4?? instead.
Jorden accepted the gift with 45.Qxd2, and after 45…Qh1+ 46.Kg4 Anish tried a last trick with 46…g6, threatening mate-in-1, but had to resign after 47.Qd7+ meant it was mate-in-3 for White instead.
Anish also proved unable to come back from that, simply dropping a piece with check with 27.Be1?? in a roughly equal position in the second game. 27…Qxe1+ wrapped up the match.
So we still haven’t had an Armageddon game in Oslo, while these are the standings with three rounds to go.
The co-leaders will both be favourites to win in Round 5, when we have Carlsen-Van Foreest and Praggnanandhaa-Hansen, while Mamedyarov-Giri and Le-Duda are two heavyweight clashes that are harder to call.
Don't miss all the Oslo Esports Cup action live here on chess24 from 17:00 CEST!
See also:
We respect your privacy and data protection guidelines. Some components of our site require cookies or local storage that handles personal information.
Using chess24 requires the storage of some personal data, as set out below. You can find additional information in our Cookie Policy, Privacy Policy, Disclaimer and Terms of Website Use. Please note that your data settings can be changed at any time by clicking on the Data Settings link in the footer at the bottom of our website.
Comments 1
Be the first to comment!