Today we saw shocking results as both Magnus Carlsen(Former World Champion) and Ding Liren(Current World Champion) found themselves on the losing side against Praggnanandhaa and Fabiano Caruana.
Magnus vs Prag
Norway Chess 2024 | Open • Round 3 • lichess.org
In this game the game between the battle of the generations, Magnus had 2 weaknesses which Pragg managed to exploit. The first problem was the rook on h8, it never moved meaning that Magnus was a piece down the whole game. The second weakness in the game involved the d5 square, white was able to place a knight on that square and critically control a lot of squares thus forcing black to create weaknesses in their position by exchanging their b7 bishop for the knight.
Ding vs Fabiano
For us humans it’s very hard to defend an incoming attack even if the computer tells us that its equal. When we look at the position above, it’s very clear to see that the queen on a4 is out of the game and black doesn’t have a lot of options to help defend white’s attack.
Black played Qc6 in order to try and get the queen back in the game, however the queen was a move too late, and the best move was 25…Rg8. From the look of things, it was wrong for Ding to play 24…Qa4, instead he should have focused more on stabilizing the game on the kingside.
Hikaru vs Alireza
In the classical game, the result ended in a draw as both players didn’t get any chances to attack. Meaning they went into an Armageddon game (Players keep the color from the classical game. Time control is 10 minutes for White and 7 minutes for Black with a 1-second increment from move 41).
Alireza had the intentions of sacrificing the c5 pawn to possibly open up the position and attack white’s queen side. This idea however didn’t work as he didn’t have enough time to find the best moves. Hikaru just played a solid game and gave him no counterplay at all.
Broadcasts: Norway Chess 2024 | Open • Round 3 • lichess.org
Results: Norway Chess