The first game of the historic FIDE Chess World Cup final between Indian prodigy Praggnanandhaa and world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen on Tuesday ended in a draw after 35 moves from both players.
18-year-old Praggnanandhaa was playing with white pieces against the Norwegian legend in black. Carlsen will have white in tomorrow's Game 2.
The 35-move encounter lasted for three hours and they begin their Game-2 on Wednesday.
Advantage Praggnanandhaa
Pragg had an advantage, as he began the Fide World Cup with the white, and had the Norwegian chess grandmaster pushed to the wall, with his queen to a4 move.
Carlsen took over 11 minutes to trade his knight on f3, which shows the 18-year-old is still in his preparation and has put the world no. 1 in some deep thinking.
"Normally, I would just probably have a bit of an advantage having a rest day while he had to play a tough tiebreak yesterday, but I've been in a pretty rough shape the last couple of days.
"I got some poisoning after the game against Abasov. I haven't been able to eat for the last two days. This also meant that I was really calm cause I had no energy to be nervous," Carlsen said after Game 1.
Magnus and Pragg were seen discussing moves after the draw.
"13... Rb8, I felt I should have something there. But maybe this position is just solid and I don't have anything. What I played there was not the best try but I could not find anything," Pragg said.
18-Yr-Old Prodigy vs 32-Yr-Old All-Time Great
This gruelling knockout tournament features eight rounds, an event that even Carlsen is yet to win. This is also the first time Pragg has reached the final, being the youngest to achieve the feat and the first Indian in 21 years.
This is the first time the two players are facing each other in the FIDE World Cup final.
Praggnanandhaa is the youngest player to reach this far in the prestigious tournament. He had earlier defeated Carlsen three times in a row this year in online chess.
"I didn't expect to play Magnus in this tournament at all because the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn't expect to be in the final…
"I will just try to give my best and see how it goes!," Pragg had said after his win over world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in the semifinal on Monday.
