Chennai (Tamil Nadu) [India], August 24 : Suriya Begum, Vice Principal of Velammal Vidyalaya where Chess World Cup runner-up R Praggnanandhaa studied, said that she is proud of the 18-year-old grandmaster for reaching in the finals.
World No 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated Indian grandmaster Praggnanandhaa to clinch the title of the International Chess Federation World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan on Thursday.
“We are proud that Praggnanandhaa is a Velammalian, an 18-year-old chess prodigy who has become the finalist of 2023 World Cup. Unfortunately, he has not won the match but on behalf of the Velammal management I wish him success for the next game. Let his success story continue to unfold," Suriya Begum told ANI.
The Norwegian chess grandmaster won the first game of the Rapid Chess tie-breaker with black pieces and managed to hold on for a draw in the second game with white pieces.
The tiebreaker is played in a Rapid Chess quicker-time control format. Praggnanandhaa fought hard but fell short with Carlsen summoning all his big match experience when it mattered the most.
Earlier on Wednesday Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen drew both their games of Classical Chess.
Praggnanandhaa had to settle for the position of runner-up of the 2023 FIDE World Cup but he will draw hope from the fact that he has qualified for the FIDE Candidates tournament.
The 2024 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament scheduled to be held from 2 April to 25 April 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The winner of the tournament will become the challenger for the 2024 World Chess Championship match.
Praggnanandhaa had an excellent tournament where he defeated World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura in a tie-breaker while reaching the final defeating World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana.
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