Praggnanandhaa stuns world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana after upseting No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in classical chess to climb into world’s top 10 | Chess News

India’s R Praggnanandhaa continues to produce top-quality chess as he stunned world number two Fabiano Caruana on Saturday in Round 5 of Norway chess to achieve the distinction of beating both world number one Magnus Carlsen and number two Caruana in classical chess for the first time ever.
The upset win helped the Indian prodigy break into the top 10 of chess world rankings.
Praggnanandhaa had beaten Carlsen in Round 3 of the tournament.

“PRAGG IS BACK Young prodigy Praggnanandhaa stuns the chess world again by defeating World No.2 Fabiano Caruana in Round 5! After toppling World No.1 Magnus Carlsen in Round 3, he’s now beaten the top two players in classical chess for the first time ever, rocketing into the top 10! What a tournament for the Indian prodigy #NorwayChess,” the official handle of Norway Chess posted on ‘X’.
Earlier, the day after securing his first classical win against the five-time world champion Carlsen at Norway Chess, Praggnanandhaa, last year’s FIDE Chess World Cup runner-up, suffered a defeat against USA’s Hikaru Nakamura in Round 4. But on Saturday, Praggnanandhaa executed a Carlsen-like endgame to outmaneuver Caruana.
The Indian initiated with a Catalan opening, leading to regular exchanges of pieces, and by the 40th move, they had reached a rook and knight endgame.

Despite the theoretical draw known for same-side pawns with an extra pawn, Praggnanandhaa persisted until Caruana made a critical blunder on his 66th move, losing his last pawn. Praggnanandhaa then needed just 11 more moves to secure the full point.
America’s Hikaru Nakamura capitalized on an off-form world champion, Ding Liren of China, to extend his lead to a full point over Norway’s Magnus Carlsen. With 10 points, Nakamura holds a commanding lead at the halfway mark of this USD 161,000 prize money tournament.
Carlsen outmaneuvered France’s Alireza Firouzja from a drawn rook and pawns endgame. With five rounds remaining, the world number one is closely followed by Praggnanandhaa with 8.5 points.

Caruana holds the fifth spot with five points, while Liren, struggling in this event, has only 2.5 points to his name.
In the women’s section, Vaishali drew with Tingjie Lei under Classical time control and then outplayed the Chinese player in the ensuing knight and pawns endgame. This marked Vaishali’s second Armageddon win of the tournament, adding to her two victories in Classical. Her only loss was against Wenjun Ju in the first round.
Anna Muzychuk is the closest competitor for Vaishali and trails by one point after her victory over Sweden’s Pia Cramling in the Classical game.
(With PTI inputs)