India’s 18-year-old Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa on Monday made historical past by qualifying for the ultimate of the FIDE World Cup chess match. He surprised world No.3 Fabiano Caruana 3.5-2.5 through the tie-break within the semi-finals to arrange a summit conflict with world primary Magnus Carlsen of Norway. He has now change into the third youngest participant after the legendary Bobby Fischer and Carlsen to qualify for the Candidates match.

After the two-game classical sequence ended 1-1, the 18-year-old Indian prodigy outlasted the highly-rated American GM in a battle of wits in a nerve-wracking tie-breaker. In the ultimate starting on Tuesday, Praggnanandhaa will tackle five-times title winner Carlsen, who beat Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov 1.5-0.5 in his semifinal.

Follwing the win, India’s chess legend Viswanathan Anand congratulated Praggnanandhaa.

Pragg goes by to the ultimate! He beats Fabiano Caruana within the tiebreak and can face Magnus Carlsen now.

What a efficiency!@FIDE_chess #FIDEWorldCup2023

— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) August 21, 2023

“I didn’t expect to play Magnus in this tournament at all because the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn’t expect to be in the final. I will just try to give my best and see how it goes!,” he stated after reserving a spot within the summit conflict.

“It feels really good to qualify for the Candidates; I really wanted to fix this spot.” With the 2 25’+10″ games ending at 1-all, Praggnanandhaa prevailed in the first 10’+10″ recreation in opposition to Caruana to get inside a draw of establishing a ultimate conflict with world No.1 Carlsen.

“Pragg goes through to the final! He beats Fabiano Caruana in the tiebreak and will face Magnus Carlsen now. What a performance!,” chess legend Viswanathan Anand posted on social networking web site ‘X’, previously Twitter.

In the primary recreation of tie-break, the Indian GM withstood plenty of strain from Caruana and held on for a attract an thrilling encounter. The second speedy recreation too noticed the same outcome, pushing the semifinals to the ten’+10′ sequence.

Praggnanandhaa has been in a wealthy vein of kind within the World Cup and his largest scalp earlier than Caruana was one other American Hikaru Nakamura, the world No.2 and second-seed, following which he stopped compatriot Arjun Erigaisi.