Brilliant Pragg forces tiebreak

The 18-year-old had to win on demand with black pieces and he did exactly that. Gukesh and Gujrathi were knocked out in the quarter-finals

- Ashish Magotra

World No.1 Magnus Carlsen was reviewing his drawn game against D Gukesh when he was asked to look at the Arjun Erigaisi-R Praggnanandhaa queen endgame and he instantly said that it was over.

"This is just inertia from Arjun," he said during an interview on chess24.com after winning his quarterfinal at the FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan on Wednesday.

It indeed was. The game had been over for a while with the computers giving Pragg the win but given that Erigaisi had got a win in the first game, he struggled for as long as possible. There was a semi-final at stake (and a spot in the Candidates potentially) and he didn't want to leave anything in the tank.

"I am very happy to force the tiebreak today," said Praggnanandhaa, who was playing with black pieces, in an interview after the game. "I didn't expect it."

Going into the day, five-time Norwegian world champion Carlsen and Arjun were in a similar position. They had both won the first round of classical games despite playing with black. They were both playing white which meant they had the chance to set the tone of the game initially. The similarity was extended when they both decided to resort to the Alapin variation of the Sicilian in their opening.

But the games veered into different directions very quickly.

Gukesh put Carlsen under pressure early and a blunder on 19. Bb5 meant that the 17-year-old had a chance to push for a win.