Pragg, with white pieces, puts Carlsen under pressure but first game of final ends in draw

The first of the classical games in the Chess World Cup final between R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen ended in a 35-move draw in Baku, Azerbaijan on Tuesday. And on the face of it, the result works for both players.

- Ashish Magotra

Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa and Norway's Grandmaster and World No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen during the first game of the final match of the Chess World Cup 2023(PTI)

Praggnanandhaa, who was playing with white, was solid from the start. He seemed to have his lines figured out. He would have been exhausted after the tiebreaker against Fabiano Caruana in the semi-finals on Monday, but the moves were coming in quickly and with confidence.

Carlsen, on the other hand, seemed a bit too relaxed. He spent seven minutes on his first three moves. Usually, Grandmasters hammer out the moves in the opening and then settle in, trying to look for a variation or a move that will take the opponent away from their preparation. But after Praggnanandhaa moved his black bishop to a3, the Norwegian spent 27 minutes and 53 seconds on his move.

Now, this wasn't normal. Carlsen can take time and we saw him do this against D Gukesh in the quarterfinal as well. But this seemed to indicate that he had been surprised. So, he needed to take his time and solve the problem in front of him.