At the ongoing FIDE World Cup in Baku, R Praggnanandhaa has beaten World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura and is currently playing World No. 3, Fabiano Caruana. If he manages to win, World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen will be waiting for him in the final. Talk about competing with the best. A lot is at stake for Pragg, who turned 18 only 10 days ago, as he heads into tiebreakers against Caruana after he played a sturdy draw with white pieces in Game 2 of their semifinal clash. Follow our live blog of the FIDE World Cup final between Praggnanandhaa vs Magnus Carlsen here It was Praggnanandhaa's stubbornness with his defense which was the difference in the game. Caruana pressed hard for the advantage, possibly not wanting to take the game to tiebreakers against the fiery youngster from Chennai, but Pragg held steady. Even as Caruana walked around in the arena and was casually chatting with Carlsen’s opponent Nijat Abasov, Pragg maintained razor-sharp focus. Caruana succeeded in establishing two connected passed pawns on the king’s side, but Praggnanandhaa gave nothing away and defended accurately with his rook and knight and the players agreed to draw after 47 moves. “I think in both games I was pressing. Probably in the first game, I had the biggest chance. Today I felt like I had a very pleasant position,” Caruana said after the game. "I don't know what will happen tomorrow. It's going to be close I am sure." INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the second semi-final clash between Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed: Rapids suit Pragg Games of shorter duration tend to be Praggnanandhaa’s strong suit and Caruana will be extremely wary of that. The American has been consistent in the classical time-control format but when it comes to rapids, he is not known to play flawless chess. His ELO rating of 2763 in rapids and 2813 in blitz 2813 may be higher than Pragg’s 2645 (rapid), 2623 (blitz) but the youngster can kick up quite a storm under time pressure. And he has been in phenomenal form over the past couple of years, especially in shorter formats. He’s even beaten five-time world champion Carlsen thrice! Pragg’s quarterfinal clash against his compatriot, friend, and walk-partner Arjun Erigaisi where he won in a frantic sudden-death blitz showdown after eight previous games failed to find a winner, showed that he remains unfazed, even when the short games turn into a marathon. Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay said the top players want to avoid playing shorter formats against the young Indians and that shows how dangerous they are. “Even someone like Carlsen, in his quarterfinal against Gukesh, had to push himself to draw the second game after he saw that Gukesh had a slight chance. None of the top players want to take the risk of facing our ‘Golden Generation’ of youngsters in rapid games because they know that rankings and ratings don’t matter there,” he said. Carlsen lavishes praise To truly understand Pragg’s prowess, let’s rewind to last Friday when he played so well in his win over Nakamura in the tiebreakers that Carlsen, who was in the middle of his own tiebreaker against Vincent Keymer, walked up to the Indian to congratulate him. He also shared a few words with him that were bound to boost Pragg’s confidence. “My chess club, Offerspill, have a camp going on right now for young, talented players in Stockholm, Sweden. Ramesh, Pragg’s personal coach, is the main coach at that camp. One of my friends who attended it told me that Ramesh was always telling them ‘be like Pragg, be like Pragg’. So I told Pragg that we all want to be like him today,” Carlsen revealed when asked about the conversation. The Norwegian hasn’t been shy in lavishing praise on the youngster in the past too. During the inaugural Global Chess League last month, Praggnanandhaa was part of Carlsen’s team –SG Alpine Warriors. When his team were top of the table, Carlsen credited their success entirely to the youngster. “Pragg has been the absolute star. Not only the fact that he wins games, but the way he wins them. It seems like he wins with class,” he had said. Praggnanandhaa had taken the world by storm as a 16-year-old when he became the then-youngest player to beat Carlsen and while he has been in the shadow of Gukesh – who became India’s highest-rated player overtaking Viswanathan Anand (in live ratings) – this tournament has seen his popularity soar to new heights. By making the semifinal, Pragg became the first player since Anand to make it to the Candidates Tournament, the winner of which will challenge Ding Liren at the World Championship. Carlsen enters his 1st FIDE World Cup final INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the second semi-final clash between Magnus Carlsen and Nijat Abasov below and also click on the notations at the right of the board to retrace the way the game developed: Carlsen had just two tasks on Sunday in Game 2 of his semifinal clash against Azerbaijan’s Abasov – don’t get into a marathon battle and settle for a draw. He didn’t really manage his first task, but got the job done, settling for a draw in 74 moves against Abasov who has been riding on home support to make it so far. This was the first time that Carlsen made it to the World Cup final.
