R Praggnanandhaa loses to Ding Liren at Armageddon, Vaishali defeats Koneru Humpy – Firstpost

R Praggnanandhaa lost to world champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tiebreaker after playing a draw under normal time control in the second round of the Norwegian chess tournament in Stavanger.

The second round saw the three classic matches once again end in a draw.

Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja and Liren won with White in Armageddon’s subsequent matches to earn 1.5 points each.

Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa, who led 2-0 against Liren, played his first classic draw.

But the Chinese general manager then emerged victorious in the Armageddon tie-break.

In the highly anticipated pairing of the day, Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura played a hard-fought classic match that ended in a draw.

Carlsen, demonstrating his exceptional talent under pressure, managed to secure a crucial victory, adding to his impressive Armageddon record and taking a 3-point lead in the tournament standings.

Meanwhile, Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana also drew after a complex fight.

Firouzja’s rapid chess abilities showed during the Armageddon match as he collected a crucial 1.5 points.

In the women’s section, R Vaishali defeated fellow Indian Koneru Humpy to record her first classic victory in the tournament.

Despite Humpy’s slight advantage in the opener, a critical error under time pressure saw Vaishali clinch victory and claim her first-ever victory against India’s number one player.

With this victory, Vaishali became the second Indian player on the live ranking list.

The other two classic matches between Lei Tingjie and Pia Cramling as well as Ju Wenjun and Anna Muzychuk ended in hard-fought draws.

Chinese duo Wenjun and Tingjie emerged victorious in their respective Armageddon games.

(with contributions from PTI)