‘I don’t think it’s such a big win’: Praggnanandhaa after beating Magnus Carlsen
Praggnanandhaa's third round victory over Carlsen on Wednesday came two years after he had beaten the world no 1 at the same tournament in what was his first classical victory over the Norwegian.
Magnus Carlsen contemplates his next move in round 3 against India's R Praggnanandhaa at the Norway Chess 2026 tournament. (Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess) Another edition of Norway Chess saw another triumph for a member of India’s golden generation over the world’s greatest chess player of the current era. Wednesday saw R Praggnanandhaa hand one more defeat to Magnus Carlsen at what is the Norwegian’s home tournament. The third round victory came two years after Pragg had beaten the World No 1 at the same tournament in what was his first classical victory over Carlsen. At last year’s Norway Chess, world champion Gukesh had earned his first Carlsen scalp in classical chess.
Carlsen does not dabble in too much classical chess these days. Norway Chess, in fact, is the one of those rare times in a year that he makes an exception to his aversion to playing the longest format of the sport. But even then, a victory in classical chess over Carlsen, who has been uninterrupted World No 1 since July 2011, is cause for celebration no matter how it arrives.
Pragg disagrees.
“Honestly, I don’t think it’s such a big win,” shrugged Praggnanandhaa in a conversation with the Indian media at Oslo moments after he had forced Carlsen to resign after the 46th move. “I got lucky at the end.”
It’s a measure of how high his standards are of himself that beating Carlsen doesn’t cut it anymore.
It’s beating Carlsen with a dominant performance from start to finish that counts.
While Pragg tried to shrug off the significance of the victory, his coach, grandmaster Vaibhav Suri, could not contain his happiness. Two years ago, when the Indian prodigy had taken down Carlsen, Suri was not part of Pragg’s team. So this was his first experience of a triumph over Carlsen.
Praggnanandhaa and his coach, grandmaster Vaibhav Suri, arrive at Oslo’s Deichman Bjørvika for the round 3 clash with Magnus Carlsen. (Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess)
“That win in 2024 was a lot cleaner, Pragg dominated from the start. But beating Magnus is not a small thing. Magnus is Magnus,” said Suri, who could not stop grinning.
Suri explained that they had to put in a lot more prep for the Carlsen challenge than for other opponents. “With Magnus it’s hard to expect what he will play because he plays classical chess so infrequently.”
The game started with Carlsen and Pragg both opting to spend 25 seconds each before making their first move. The World No 1 theatrically adjusted all his pieces in response to Pragg playing 1.e4. Then, he opted to pick a fight by choosing the Sicilian Defence with black. Pragg was happy to accept the challenge.
It was a facsimile of the battle the duo had at Norway Chess 2024 when Carlsen had picked a fight with black pieces — that time going for the riskier Paulsen Variation of the Sicilian — and lost. Back on that day two years ago, while Carlsen and Pragg duelled over the board, Hikaru Nakamura had taken one look at their game and walked into the confession booth to lament: “I wish Magnus would take these chances against me or Fabi (Caruana). When Magnus is playing the younger kids specifically he wants to sort of prove a point, he takes far more risks than he does against us old folks!”
Magnus Carlsen and R Praggnanandhaa before the start of their round 3 game at the Norway Chess 2026 tournament. (Photo: Michal Walusza/Norway Chess)
On Wednesday, both Carlsen and Pragg wanted to prove a point.
Pragg’s first throw of the dice came as early as the 6th move, when he played h4, which caught Carlsen off guard.
“There are at least 18 decent moves for white on move 6 in that position,” Carlsen said in the confession booth. “And yet I managed to get surprised.”
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As the battle entered the middle game, things heated up.
“We both wanted to fight today,” Pragg said. “That’s why we saw this crazy fight… I don’t know what was happening. At some point I lost control.”
Pragg was not the only one. Wednesday’s third round clash saw both players go blunder for blunder after the game entered a wild time scramble at the end. Partly responsible for the game descending into a blunder-fest was the Norway Chess’ unique time control: each player had 120 minutes at the start with an increment of 10 seconds coming into play only from move 41.
“In this time control when you are down to seconds it’s just a gamble,” said Pragg.
By the 37th move (37…g4), Pragg thought he was “busted”.
But with both players down to the bare-minimum on their clocks, blunders arrived from both ends. Eventually, Carlsen threw in the towel to hand Pragg another classical victory.
Over the span of three rounds, Carlsen has dropped 13 rating points in Oslo. The man who was once invincible has looked human so far. A day after Pragg’s triumph, Gukesh will try his luck against Carlsen in round 4. Once again, expect a street fight.
(The writer is in Oslo at the invitation of Norway Chess)
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