{"id":17924,"date":"2026-06-07T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/magnus-carlsen-left-in-awe-of-praggnanandhaas-norway-chess-heroics-thats-pretty-insane-chess-news\/"},"modified":"2026-06-07T11:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-06-07T05:30:00","slug":"magnus-carlsen-left-in-awe-of-praggnanandhaas-norway-chess-heroics-thats-pretty-insane-chess-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/magnus-carlsen-left-in-awe-of-praggnanandhaas-norway-chess-heroics-thats-pretty-insane-chess-news\/","title":{"rendered":"Magnus Carlsen left in awe of Praggnanandhaa&#8217;s Norway Chess heroics: &#8216;That&#8217;s pretty insane&#8217; | Chess News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<div class=\"e9jwa\">\n<div class=\"vdo_embedd\">\n<div class=\"GfdvZ\">\n<section class=\"_bIDB  clearfix id-r-component leadmedia undefined undefined  E9tg9 \" style=\"top:0px\">\n<div class=\"_bIDB\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">\n<div class=\"ypVvZ\">\n<div class=\"WGttI\"><img src=\"https:\/\/static.toiimg.com\/thumb\/msid-131562180,imgsize-71970,width-400,height-225,resizemode-4\/r-praggnanandhaa-and-magnus-carlsen.jpg\" alt=\"Magnus Carlsen left in awe of Praggnanandhaa's Norway Chess heroics: 'That's pretty insane'\" title=\"R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen (Freestyle Chess | Lennart Ootes)\" decoding=\"async\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"Ta7d_ img_cptn\"><span title=\"R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen (Freestyle Chess | Lennart Ootes)\">R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen (Freestyle Chess | Lennart Ootes)<\/span><\/div>\n<\/section>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa completed a remarkable comeback to win the Norway Chess 2026 title, earning praise from none other than World No. 1 <a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/topic\/magnus-carlsen\" styleobj=\"[object Object]\" class=\"\" commonstate=\"[object Object]\" frmappuse=\"1\">Magnus Carlsen<\/a> after a stunning finish to the tournament.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"4\"\/>The 20-year-old scripted history in Oslo by becoming the first Indian to win the prestigious Norway Chess tournament. Praggnanandhaa entered the final round trailing American Grandmaster Wesley So but produced a championship-winning performance when it mattered most.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"7\"\/>Needing a victory over Germany&#8217;s Vincent Keymer and requiring So to drop points against France&#8217;s Alireza Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa saw both results fall perfectly into place. <!-- -->He defeated Keymer in a brilliant display of attacking chess, while So and Firouzja settled for a draw, handing the Indian star the title.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"12\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"14\"\/>Carlsen, who endured a difficult tournament by his lofty standards, was among the first to acknowledge Praggnanandhaa&#8217;s achievement. The Norwegian was particularly impressed by the Indian&#8217;s ability to deliver under pressure in the closing stages.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"16\"\/>&#8220;He won the last four classical games. That&#8217;s as clutch as it gets. Pragg is an incredible fighter, and it&#8217;s fun to see him get rewarded for that,&#8221; Carlsen said.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"20\"\/>The five-time world champion further underlined the significance of the achievement.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"22\"\/>&#8220;That&#8217;s pretty insane. That&#8217;s as clutch as it gets, and it just shows that it would have been possible for me as well with a similar finish. But yeah, that&#8217;s incredible. It shows you the volatility of the system and he is an incredible fighter. <!-- -->It&#8217;s fun to see him get rewarded for that,&#8221; he added.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"26\"\/><\/p>\n<p><h3>Pragg&#8217;s memorable double over Carlsen<br \/><\/h3>\n<\/p>\n<p><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"28\"\/>One of the defining stories of Norway Chess 2026 was Praggnanandhaa&#8217;s dominance against Carlsen in classical chess.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"30\"\/>The Indian Grandmaster defeated the world No. 1 twice during the tournament, first in Round 3 and then again in Round 8. The second victory was particularly significant as Praggnanandhaa became one of the very few players to beat Carlsen twice in the same classical tournament. <!-- -->The wins proved crucial in keeping him in contention for the title race.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"34\"\/><span class=\"strong\" data-ua-type=\"1\" onclick=\"stpPgtnAndPrvntDefault(event)\">Nerves of steel in the final round<\/span><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"36\"\/><span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"37\"\/>The title-clinching victory over Keymer came in a dynamic Queen&#8217;s Gambit Declined. Praggnanandhaa gradually improved his position before launching a decisive kingside attack. Key moments included the aggressive 33.f5 and the powerful 38.Ne6+, which exposed Black&#8217;s king and eventually led to a winning rook endgame.<span class=\"id-r-component br\" data-pos=\"39\"\/><\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/timesofindia.indiatimes.com\/sports\/chess\/magnus-carlsen-left-in-awe-of-praggnanandhaas-norway-chess-heroics-thats-pretty-insane\/articleshow\/131562029.cms\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen (Freestyle Chess | Lennart Ootes) Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa completed a remarkable comeback to win the Norway Chess 2026 title, earning praise from none other than World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen after a stunning finish to the tournament.The 20-year-old scripted history in Oslo by becoming the first Indian to win [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":17925,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[263],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-17924","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-sports"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17924","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17924"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17924\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17925"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17924"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17924"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/banitoday.com\/hi\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17924"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}