Chess World Cup Final: India's R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen produced another draw in the second game of the FIDE World Cup final to force the match into tiebreaker. The winner of the contest will now be decided on Thursday (August 24). The first game of the FIDE World Cup final between Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen had also ended in a draw after 35 moves. Notably, the 18-year-old Indian grandmaster had stormed into the final by shocking world No.3 Fabiano Caruana 3.5-2.5.
In the tie-breaker on Thursday, two tie-break games will be played in rapid format. In these games a time control of 25 minutes will be set with a ten-second increment per move. However, in case these games also turn out to be draws then the duo will play two more matches with a time control of five minutes and three seconds increment per move. In case of a rare chance of these games also ending in a tie, blitz games with a time control of three minutes and two seconds increments per move will be repeated until a winner is found.
On his way to the final, Praggnanandhaa, other than his win over world number 3 GM Fabiano Caruana, also stunned world number 2 Hikaru Nakamura. Praggnanandhaa also qualified to play in the Candidates tournament the winner of which will challenge Liren Ding. It is pertinent to note that the International Chess Federation or FIDE's rules deem that the top three players of the Chess World Cup qualify for the Candidates Tournament.