Norway Chess: R Praggnanandhaa beats world champion Ding Liren in Armageddon game

R Praggnanandhaa followed his wins over Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, by beating world champion Ding Liren in the seventh round of the Norway Chess tournament on Monday. Praggnanandhaa and Liren played out a stalemate in the classical format before the Indian triumphed in the tiebreaker Armageddon game.

Liren, bottom of the standings after four consecutive losses, avoided making it five and had the upper hand until the final couple of moves.

Ding had gotten the better of Praggnanandhaa in Armageddon game with the white pieces earlier in the tournament. It seemed he would do the same with Black pieces but overlooked a move which could have been doom for Praggnanandhaa.

GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu beat World No.1 Magnus Carlsen and World No.2 Fabiano Caruana in their classical games, and now he beat the World Champion Ding Liren in their Armageddon game! WHAT A PERFORMANCE by the Indian prodigy 🔥🔥 #norwaychess pic.twitter.com/VNIcduLUh4

— Norway Chess (@NorwayChess) June 3, 2024

Elsewhere, Hikaru Nakamura reduced the gap on Norway Chess leader Carlsen down to to half a point after winning an Armageddon thriller. Caruana’s knight sacrifice against Alireza Firouzja almost backfired, but he escaped in classical chess before the Frenchman gave no chances in the decider.

With three rounds to go, Carlsen leads the Open event with 13 points. Behind him are Nakamura (on 12.5 points) and R Praggnanandhaa (on 11 points). Firouzja (9.5), Caruana (7.5) and Liren (3.5) form the bottom three in the six-man competition.

In the Women’s Norway Chess competition, Anna Muzychuk took the sole lead after becoming the first player to win a mini-match against Women’s World Champion Ju Wenjun. R Vaishali’s title hopes suffered a blow as she lost in classical chess to compatriot Koneru Humpy, while Lei Tingjie defeated Pia Cramling in Armageddon.