Praggnanandhaa loses to Fabiano Caruana

Stavanger: Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa went down fighting against Fabiano Caruana of United States while world number one Magnus Carlsen inflicted an Armaggeddon defeat on France’s Firouzja Alireza in the penultimate round of Norway Chess tournament here.

With 16 points in his bag, Carlsen stretched his lead to 1.5 points over nearest rival Hikaru Nakamura, who was in for a shock as World Champion Ding Liren, for once, did not blow his position away.

Praggnanandhaa, despite the loss against Caruana in Armageddon, is still third on 13 points, a full point ahead of Alireza. Caruana on 10.5 comes in next in standings ahead of Liren (6), who spoiled Nakamura’s party.

In the women’s section, R Vaishali succumbed to another loss at the hands of Tingjie Lei of China and

was relegated to fourth spot while Koneru Humpy went down to tournament leader Wenju Ju of China.

Wenjun Ju of China strengthen her claim for the title by moving to 16 points. Tingjie Lei and Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine follow her 1.5 points behind while Vaishali on 11.5 is a distant fourth ahead of Humpy who is on nine

points.