By the end, as his king ran around on the board evading the advances of Fabiano Caruana’s bloodthirsty rook, R Praggnanandhaa allowed himself the luxury of staring away from the board into the distance. Occasionally, as the endgame played out, he picked up a piece and twirled it between his fingers. There was even a top corner of the eye glance at Caruana as if the youngster was wondering how long the American planned to continue his futile chase for victory. Follow our live blog of the FIDE World Cup final between Praggnanandhaa vs Magnus Carlsen here With a defensive obduracy that would make Rahul Dravid proud, the 18-year-old from India had managed to thwart vicious attacks from his seasoned opponent, a veteran of many Candidates tournaments. Playing with black pieces, Praggnanandhaa managed to pick up a stalemate after a 78-move game in the first contest of the semi-final at the FIDE World Cup in Baku. In the other semi-final, former world champion Magnus Carlsen stunned his world no 97 opponent, Azerbaijan’s Nijat Abasov, in the first game of their semi-final. INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the first 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: By the end, Caruana had a pawn on the board and a rook to accompany the king. Praggnanandhaa had just two pieces, his rook at one corner of the board and his king at the other. Praggnanandhaa’s king played hide and seek on the vast expanse of 64 squares with Caruana’s rook trying to chase it. Every once in a while, Praggnanandhaa would threaten to put the American’s king under duress. But both players, and everyone else watching, knew that the game was destined for a draw unless the tiresome slog of the last five hours had made one of them careless. It hadn’t. By the 76th move, the number of pieces on the board had whittled down to three. Eventually, Praggnanandhaa captured the white pawn on the 78th move to end the evening with a draw. Time trouble For a long stretch of the game, Caruana had the upper hand. At one point, he pressured the young Praggnanandhaa into such dire time trouble that the Indian had to make 10 moves in just over three minutes. But, through the course of the FIDE World Cup, Praggnanandhaa has shown himself to be made of sterner stuff. He stunned Hikaru Nakamura in a tiebreak in a display so potent that even Carlsen was moved to stand up mid-way from his tiebreaker and walk up to him to congratulate him. Then, he had survived the insanity of tiebreaks against good friend Arjun Erigaisi, despite reaching 30 seconds late for the sudden death game. Caruana had mentioned before the semi-finals that fatigue would play a major role in who eventually emerged as the winner of the tournament. It is, after all, a month-long chess showpiece. His Indian opponent did have the benefit of age on his side — Praggnanandhaa turned 18 during the event while Caruana is 31 years old — but Caruana was coming from an added rest day, while Praggnanandhaa played seven nerve-wracking jousts over shorter formats against compatriot Erigaisi to get to the semis. Maybe that’s why he prolonged Saturday’s battle against Praggnanandhaa. Nervous Carlsen If Praggnanandhaa managed to hold on to his nerves to eke out a draw, Carlsen admitted after the game that he was very nervous during the game. At one point, he uncharacteristically missed a clear winning move, which he later agonizingly realised as he joined the FIDE commentary team for an analysis. INTERACTIVE: You can follow the move-by-move action from the first 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: "I have to say today was just really, really nervy, so I didn't particularly enjoy the game today, but I do enjoy the result, and if I don't lose tomorrow, if I get to the final, then I think some of the pressure will certainly be off! I'm just happy to have survived & got the win!" he told Chess24 later. Both pairs will play the second game of the semi-final on Sunday.
