Chess World Cup: Brilliant Pragg sets up final against Carlsen

The 18-year-old from Chennai beat world no.3 Caruana in the tiebreaker

India’s R Praggnanandhaa played two near perfect Rapid games, with 10-minute time controls, to snuff out the challenge of Fabiano Caruana in the tiebreak (3.5-2.5) and advance to the final of the Chess World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan on Monday.

Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa wins over World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in the tie-breaker round of the FIDE World Cup chess tournament at Baku in Azerbaijan on Monday.(Chess Base India Twitter)

The 18-year-old has now beaten world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No.3 Caruana in what can already be termed a dream tournament. Awaiting him in the final, which begins on Tuesday, is the almighty challenge of world No.1 Magnus Carlsen.

“I didn’t really expect to play Magnus at all because the only way I could play him was in the final. I didn't expect to play the final at all. Somehow things (turned out this way). I will try and give my best,” said Praggnanandhaa after the win.

In tennis terms, this will be like trying to beat Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal and Novak Djokovic in the same tournament. Only one man, David Nalbandian (at Madrid in 2007) achieved that feat. Praggnanandhaa will hope he too can be David when facing the Goliath.

The lack of a rest day will hit him but if there is a high that can prepare you for the challenge of facing a player who has stood atop the chess world since November 2013, then it has to be this run.

In the semis, Caruana put Praggnanandhaa under immense pressure in the two classical games, but the Indian found a way to survive.

“This match goes to my defensive skills; otherwise I was almost losing in every single game,” said Praggnanandhaa. “Losing is maybe a hard word, but in the first two classical games I was defending throughout, I played some inaccuracies in the opening and then suffered.”

That saw the match move into the tiebreak. The shorter games (Rapid and Blitz) call for counterplay and imbalance but in the 25-minute section, Caruana was still in control.

“Third game I was lost at some point but with little time it is never easy. And fourth game I was pushing a bit but it was nothing.”

Eventually, Praggnanandhaa got a win with white in the fifth game of the tie. The position seemed to be quite equal, but he took his opportunity, swapped the rooks, went up a pawn to force Caruana into trouble from which he couldn't recover from.

“Things went wrong for him with c3, d4 coming in,” said the teenager from Chennai. “I felt that black should be totally fine but in the time scramble I managed to not mess up and converted quite nicely.”

Caruana now had to win on demand and with Praggnanandhaa needing only a draw, this was never going to be easy. The Indian GM even managed to get a position from where, according the chess engines, it looked like he would win comfortably.

“This game (the 6th)... I thought I should win comfortably,” said Praggnanandhaa. “I had time and a very good position but I started to hesitate and tried to be cautious, which is never a good idea in such situations. And then I allowed a lot of counterplay. I was never in danger but it could have been smooth.”

He will have to get the semi-final out of his system very quickly, and unlike the previous matches, he will perhaps only have a good night’s sleep to fall back on. But one can imagine him walking around with a big smile plastered on his face.

“It feels great to qualify for the Candidates; I really wanted to fix this spot. I didn't want to get this fourth position and wait for Magnus’ decision,” he said, after becoming the third youngest player in history to make it to the Candidates tournament.

Carlsen isn't a new opponent though – they have faced 19 times already, but many of those matches were in the Rapid format. The challenge for the Indian will be to survive the Classical games before looking to attack in the tiebreak.

There is no young chess player in the world who hasn’t looked up to Carlsen, but Praggnanandhaa would surely like to show this is now a battle of equals.

Goryachkina wins Women’s title

Russian Aleksandra Goryachkina won the Women's World Cup after prevailing over Nurgyul Salimova of Bulgaria in the second Rapid game of the final on Monday. After the two classical games were drawn, Salimova was in a better position in the first Rapid game but couldn't capitalise. When Goryachkina’s turn to seize the initiative came in the second, the women's world No.2 made no mistake.