Magnus Carlsen was within touching distance of top spot at the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2024 on Saturday when he ran into Indian phenom R Praggnanandhaa in Round 11 on Saturday at Warsaw.
After a 69-move battle, that went into a queen endgame with Pragg a pawn up, Carlsen finally resigned after and later opened up about how deeply that game against Praggnanandhaa had affected him. Carlsen heads into Sunday’s round of games 2.5 points behind tournament leader Wei Yi of China.
“Pretty much every game tomorrow is a must-win for sure,” Carlsen admitted. Sunday is the final day of the Warsaw leg at the Grand Chess Tour Superbet Rapid and Blitz.
He opened up about the bruising battle against Praggnanandhaa in Round 11.
“I just didn’t have it today. I felt good from the start, but then I think my nervous system just collapsed during or after the game against Pragg, and after that I just sucked, honestly. The score was still half-decent, but obviously if Wei Yi continues to win then it doesn’t matter,” Carlsen told grandmaster Cristian Chirila four hours later.
Carlsen left frustrated
Carlsen showed his frustration very evidently in another game, this time against Uzbek prodigy GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov.
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Carlsen got into time trouble while in a winning position in the match against Abdusattorov and ended up blundering his queen and in the end he jumped back out of his seat and punched the air in frustration.
“I have no sense of anything with a few seconds,” Carlsen later admitted.
It must be noted that Praggnanandhaa himself didn’t recover after that win over Carlsen.
The 18-year-old from India was within just one point of Carlsen in third place, but after beating the World No 1, he lost the next two games.