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Wednesday, 17 Aug 2022 10:09
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa share FTX Crypto Cup lead

Magnus Carlsen and Indian star Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa made it two wins out of two today as the FTX Crypto Cup favourites powered into an early lead. 

The World Champion recovered from a shock loss against American teenager Hans Niemann to march into Round 3 of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour round-robin. Pragg, meanwhile, narrowly beat Anish Giri to avenge a costly defeat the Dutch number 1 inflicted on him earlier this year in the Oslo Esports Cup. 

Carlsen's day started badly as he was simply blown away by Niemann, the lowest rated player in the tournament. Niemann, coming off a 3-0 loss yesterday, was super-smooth with the black pieces. The killer move was 35... Be4, which caused havoc in Carlsen's defence and ended Niemann's tilt.  

In his post-game comment, Niemann summarised his win enigmatically by simply saying: "Chess speaks for itself." But Carlsen doesn't just roll over. Game 2 saw the world number 1 hit back in ruthless style to level the score at 1-1. 

Then in the third game, Carlsen sprung another opening surprise with the dubious 1. a3, played for the first time on the Tour, before moving into a more orthodox queen's pawn opening. The Norwegian has previously played 1. e3 and 1. f3 - all highly unorthodox moves. 

Carlsen quickly went a pawn up and secured a beneficial queen trade before turning the screw against his 19-year-old opponent to take the win and go 2-1 up. Niemann now needed to win the next game on demand. He battled hard, but could not hold back the tide. Carlsen won the final game - despite missing a chance to win a piece - to take the match 3-1. 

Carlsen said after: "I didn't play so great, but I'm very happy with the fact I came back."

Alireza Firouzja, the French-registered superstar-in-the-making, brushed off his loss yesterday to get his first campaign this season under way with a superb 2.5-0.5 win over Liem Le. 

Firouzja clinched victory with a game to spare, picking up $7,500 and 3pts. Vietnam's top player, meanwhile, has now lost two matches in a row. 

The final two matches to finish were less clear. Pragg and Giri played out three draws before Pragg struck in the final game. 

The youngster sits alongside Carlsen at the top of the leaderboard on 6/6pts. Tomorrow Pragg plays Niemann while Giri, still yet to get off the mark, faces Firouzja. 

The last match to finish, Jan-Krzysztof Duda vs Levon Aronian, became the first of the tournament to go to tiebreaks after a tight encounter between two of the Tour big beasts ended 2-2.

Aronian missed an opportunity to take the lead in the first blitz tiebreak, which ended in a draw. But the Armenian-born US star made no mistake in the second to take the match win. He now sits one point behind Carlsen and Pragg on 5 points. 

Round 3 of the round-robin event starts at 12:00 ET (18:00 CEST). Each match will be played over four rapid games, with blitz tiebreaks in case of a 2:2 draw. 

All the action will be broadcast on chess24 with a choice of commentary from our Oslo team of David Howell, Jovanka Houska and Kaja Snare, or from Peter Leko and Tania Sachdev.

For further comments contact: 

Leon Watson, Head of PR, Play Magnus Group
leon@chessable.com
+447786078770


About the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour

The Champions Chess Tour is the leading online chess Tour worldwide determining the world's best chess player over a full competitive season of online chess. The 2022 season begins in February 2022 and features monthly tournaments culminating in a Final in November 2022. The best chess players in the world are competing in rapid chess. All games take place online on www.chess24.com with players competing for a total prize pool of over USD 1.5 million. For more information visit www.chess24.com/tour