Magnus Carlsen’s gameplan: Take Pragganandha into complex endgame scenarios, setup tiebreak victory | Chess News

It doesn’t matter if he’s playing with black pieces or white. Magnus Carlsen has proved once again that he can effortlessly control a chess match when he’s in the mood for it.
In his first two Classical games of the FIDE World Cup final in Baku against India’s R Praggnanandhaa, Carlsen, who was suffering from a bout of food poisoning, lacked the energy to compete. In Game 1, playing with black, he effortlessly stifled any attack Praggnanandhaa and played for a draw as he didn’t want to stretch the game. Playing Game 2 with white, Carlsen, who was still unwell, wanted to finish off the game as soon as possible so played a defensive opening and settled for a draw in just 30 moves.
He was better on Thursday and perhaps decided that he’d wasted enough time and was going for the kill.
Grandmaster Srinath Narayan, who’s also the coach of Arjun Erigaisi, who Praggnanandhaa beat in the quarterfinal, told The Indian Express that Carlsen suddenly accelerated and Praggnanandhaa just couldn’t keep up.

“Praggnanandhaa was exerting some pressure on Carlsen’s king but close to the 40th move, the Norwegian turned things around bringing his own pieces against Praggnanandhaa’s king. Here with less time, since the nature of the game became sharper, and with Carlsen accelerating, Praggnanandhaa suffered a bit and wasn’t able to cope with the change of events. First, he moved a pawn on the other side trying to get some counterplay but it didn’t really work. Carlsen just came with his Knights and Rooks towards White’s king. Praggnanandhaa didn’t have any defence against it and the position just collapsed,” he explained.
Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay was all praise for Carlsen’s play, saying it takes guts to set up an attack like he did in the final of a World Cup. “Firstly, it was clear that Carlsen made up his mind to win with black pieces and I must say it’s possibly the best game he has played in the last four-five matches,” Thipsay said. “Carlsen took a risk of allowing Praggnanandhaa to get into a Kingside attack. It looked as though white had a strong attack. To put your King in an apparently dangerous position takes a lot of guts but Carlsen’s assessment of tactics was very accurate.Most Read
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“When the position became drawish, he planned his rook superbly. None of white’s Bishops could do anything. It was clear that he had absolute control of the board,” he said.
Time trouble
While Praggnanandhaa is generally very strong in the shorter formats, on Thursday he seemed perplexed with Carlsen’s play. When Carlsen began to press, he had more than 2 minutes on the board while Praggnanandhaa, at one point had only 11 seconds. Carlsen was barely taking time to make a move while Pragnanandhaa had to ponder his next move.

“Carlsen is a very strong tactical and strategic player. In the tiebreaker he played a strategic game, taking it to a complex position. Youngsters like Praggnanandhaa find it difficult to defend multiple weaknesses. They’re better at counter-attacking. Carlsen sensed the nature of the position well and realised that Pragnanandhaa would not be able to do anything. He kept avoiding a piece exchange, even moving a rook from an open to a closed file to avoid simplification of the game. So he was planning the attack all along while Praggnanandhaa wasted time in figuring out Carlsen’s plan. That was where the game was lost,” Thipsay said.