MOSCOW, August 24. /TASS/. Norwegian Chess Grandmaster Magnus Carlsen won the 2023 FIDE Chess World Cup in Azerbaijan after needing a tie-break to defeat India’s teen prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa on Thursday.
"Former World Champion Magnus Carlsen has accomplished a significant milestone in his illustrious chess career by capturing his inaugural World Cup title, the only tournament that was missing from his immense collection of victories," the official website of the World Chess Federation (FIDE) said in a statement.
"After a quiet draw in the second game of the finals, Carlsen - who is recovering from food poisoning - defeated the 18-year-old Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa in the tiebreaks. It took just two tiebreak games and about one and a half hours," the statement added.
The first two games of the final round of the 2023 FIDE Chess World Cup took place on August 22 with Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa playing both of them to a stalemate.
In the following pair of tie-breakers, the Norwegian defeated his Indian opponent playing with black pieces in the first game and in the second game, the two played to a draw, bringing Carlsen his first career title at the FIDE Chess World Cup series.
In the match for the bronze, Fabiano Caruana of the United States also used a tiebreaker to beat Azerbaijan’s Nijatt Abasov.
"The match for third place finished with Fabiano Caruana’s victory," the statement reads. "After losing in game one of the regular match, Caruana made a comeback in a complicated and tough game on day two and reached the tiebreaks. Nijat Abasov - the Azeri star who surprised everyone with his exceptional performance in his native Baku - broke in the rapid, losing both tiebreak games."
"All three top-placed players have qualified for the 2024 Candidates tournament which is due to take place next April in Canada," according to the FIDE statement. "If Carlsen officially declines to take part - he has hinted in the interviews that he might not be interested in playing in the event - then Nijat Abasov, who finished fourth, will replace him."
Carlsen, 32, has held the title of world chess champ five times since first winning the crown in 2013, when he outplayed India’s Viswanathan Anand. He defended his world chess champion’s title in a match with Anand in 2014, beat Russia’s Sergey Karjakin in a match for the world chess crown in 2016, outperformed Fabiano Caruana of the United States in 2018 and fended off Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2021.
On July 20, 2022, Norway’s Carlsen, who is currently ranked as FIDE’s top player, refused to participate in a match for the world chess crown against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, saying at that time that he was "not motivated to play another match" and simply felt that he did not "have a lot to gain."
Following Carlsen’s withdrawal last year, Nepomniachtchi was slated to face China’s Ding Liren, who was his runner-up at the 2022 Candidates Chess Tournament. The battle for the 2023 World Chess Crown between Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren is being hosted by the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.
The 2023 Chess World Cup was a 206-player single-elimination chess tournament that was hosted by the Azerbaijani capital of Baku between July 30 and August 24.