Norway Chess 2024: Praggnanandhaa loses to World Champion Liren in Armageddon, Vaishali beats Humpy

India’s prodigy Praggnanandhaa went with a 2-0 head-to-head lead against Liren but the Chinese GM emerged victorious in the Armageddon tie-breaker.

FILE PHOTO: R. Praggnanandhaa lost to World Champion Ding Liren in the Armageddon tie-breaker in the second round of the Norway Chess tournament. | Photo Credit: PTI

R. Vaishali took the sole lead in the second round of the women’s section at the Norway Chess tournament at Stavanger in Norway, on Tuesday. She moved ahead after scoring a win in the classical game against compatriot Koneru Humpy.

Vaishali was on four points, one point ahead of the Chinese duo of World champion Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie. Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine, who went down to Ju, and Pia Cramling of Sweden, who lost to Lei, had two points each.

Humpy remained on 1.5 points. The former World rapid champion had to pay the penalty for her inaccurate moves against Vaishali, as she resigned on the 45th move, her queen trapped.

In the open section, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen was in the sole lead position. The superstar from the host nation defeated Hikaru Nakamura of the United States in Armageddon to take his tally to three points. After the classical game was drawn, Carlsen won after 50 moves in the Armageddon game.

The two other matches in the open section were also decided by Armageddon. World champion Ding Liren of China and Alireza Firouzja of France were the winners, against R. Praggnanandhaa and the American Fabiano Caruana, respectively.

Ding, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa and Nakamura were just half-a-point behind Carlsen, with 2.5 points apiece.