‘Playing Magnus Carlsen on his home ground is not a challenge’: R Praggnanandhaa | chess news

With less than a week to go for the prestigious 12th edition of Norway Chess, India’s chess sensation Praggnanand Rameshbabu is excited to play in a field that will include World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, World Champion Ding Liren and World No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura. Other global players are involved. Stars. The event will be held in Stavanger, Norway from May 27 to June 7. “I am very happy and excited to play in Norway Chess. The field is very strong. This is probably the strongest ground I have played on and I see it as an opportunity and a challenge to give my best. I am also looking forward to playing under control at the moment which I have not played anywhere else,” said the 18-year-old from Prague.

Reflecting on his competition with world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen at last year’s FIDE Chess World Cup, where he gave the 32-year-old Norwegian a tough challenge, Prag said, “I always enjoy a good challenge. After the World Cup last year, this will be my first classical game with them. I am very excited to play his character and equally excited to play others. There is no doubt that the experience here will help me in future tournaments.”

The young player from Chennai also stressed that playing Carlsen in his home ground (Norway) is not a challenge. “I don’t think it’s a challenge for me to play Magnus on his home ground. Normally, it would matter for a player playing at home, but for me it would not matter that much,” expressed a confident Pragg, who will also join her sister Vaishali Rameshbabu in the prestigious Norway Chess Women’s Tournament for the first time. Will play in.

“I am happy to see the beginning of a special women’s tournament in Norway Chess. This is a very good initiative because there are not many tournaments for women. This will also encourage other organizations to organize women’s tournaments.

“My sister will also be playing there. I’m curious to see how she’ll do,” he said.

With more events being added to the international calendar, Prague highlighted the development of chess around the world and the growing opportunities for young and emerging players.

“It is a busy schedule this year. After Norway Chess, we will go to Budapest for the Chess Olympiad and I will also play the Global Chess League later this year. It’s really good to have such an exciting league and I think it will definitely help the game grow. As a chess fan, I’m happy to see this league grow. For now, my focus is on Norway Chess and I am well prepared physically and mentally to give my best performance there,” Prag signed off.

The tournament will be played in a double round-robin format with classical time control, with each player getting 120 minutes for 40 moves with an increment of 10 seconds after each move. After move 41, there is an increase of 1 second.

In case the game ends in a tie, the Armageddon game will be played. In Armageddon, white gets 10 minutes, black seven minutes.

Winning the classical game will give three points while winning in Armageddon will give the player 1.5 points while losing Armageddon will give one point.

Full list of participants at Norway Chess 2024:

Men’s Category:

1. Magnus Carlsen (Norway), 2830, world no. 1

2. Fabiano Caruana (USA), 2804, world no. 2

3. Hikaru Nakamura (USA), 2788, world no. 3

4. World champion Ding Liren (China), 2776, world no. 4

5. Alireza Firoza (France), 2765, world no. 6

6. Praggnanand R. (India), 2748, world no. 11

Women’s category: (The rankings mentioned are in the women’s category):

1. Koneru Hampi (India), 2554, world no. 2

2. Lei Tingjie (China), 2550, world no. 4

3. Women’s World Champion Xu Wenjun (China), 2547, World No. 5

4. Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine), 2525, world no. 7

5. Vaishali Rameshbabu (India), 2481, world no. 14

6. Pia Crammling (Sweden), 2437, world no. 31

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