R Praggnanandhaa has an outside chance to win the event after the penultimate match – Firstpost

Ding Liren, Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana won the Armageddon matches in the ninth and penultimate round of Norwegian chess on Thursday. India’s R Praggnanandhaa still has a mathematical chance of winning the event despite losing to Caruana in the Armageddon decider.

Carlsen, who beat Alireza Firouzja, now leads Hikaru Nakamura – who lost to Ding – by 1.5 points. In the final round on Friday, Carlsen will face Caruana with white pieces, while Nakamura will face R Praggnanandhaa with black pieces.

Praggnanandhaa is third in the Norwegian chess rankings with 13 points, behind Carlsen (16) by three points and Nakamura (14.5) by 1.5 points. Firouzja is fourth with 12 points, Caruana fifth with 10.5 and Liren regained some pride at the end of the tournament with six points.

Praggnanandhaa can only win the Norwegian chess title if he beats Nakamura in classical chess for all three points and Carlsen loses to Caruana.

In Norwegian women’s chess, Lei Tingjie defeated R Vaishali in the only classical victory of the day. She now faces women’s world champion Ju Wenjun, who defeated Koneru Humpy at Armageddon to lead the tournament by 1.5 points. Anna Muzychuk will support Lei, as she still has a chance after beating Pia Cramling.