R. Praggnanandhaa and Koneru Humpy posted victories on the opening day of the Norway Chess tournament on Monday.
The other Indian in the fray, R. Vaishali, however, suffered a loss at the hands of the women’s World champion Ju Wenjun of China.
The male World champion from China, Ding Liren, though, could not begin his campaign on the right note. He drew with former World champion Magnus Carslen in the classical game quickly, in just 14 moves, but in the Armageddon game that followed he could not force a win; he had to, as he was playing with white.
Carslen needed only a draw, which he got in 65 moves.
In fact, the day’s all the six matches — three each in the open and women’s sections — the classical games were drawn. Thus Armageddon had to be played to identify the winner.
Praggnanandhaa won his Armageddon against France’s Alireza Firouzja, as did Hikaru Nakamura, with black, against Fabiano Caruana in an all-American encounter.
In the women’s event, Humpy, with black, drew her Armageddon game with veteran Swede Pia Cramling. China’s Lei Tingjie won in the Armageddon game with black against Anna Muzychuk of Ukraine.
The results: Open: R. Praggnanandhaa 1.5 bt Alireza Firouzja (Fra) 1; Ding Liren (Chn) 1 lost to Magnus Carlsen (Swe) 1.5; Fabiano Caruana (USA) 1 lost to Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 1.5.
Women: Pia Cramling (Swe) 1 lost to Koneru Humpy 1.5; Wenjun Ju (Chn) 1.5 bt R. Vaishali 1; Anna Muzychuk (Ukr) 1 lost to Lei Tingjie (Chn) 1.5.
