India’s 18-year old Grandmaster (GM) R. Praggnanandhaa and world number one Magnus Carlsen's FIDE Chess World Cup final's second match has also ended in a draw, on Wednesday in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The match lasted just over an hour with both players playing just 30 moves before agreeing on a draw.
After the match, Magnus admitted he was still not back to full fitness after suffering from a bout of food poisoning earlier this week, and hoped to be get better in time for the tiebreak on Thursday.
'I’m feeling a bit better today. Grateful to the doctors and nurses who got me some good treatment yesterday so today I’m feeling a bit better but I still didn't feel like I had the energy for a full fight so I thought lets get one more day of rest and hopefully ill have more strength tomorrow,' said Carlsen.
18-year-old Praggnanandhaa also admitted he didn't think Magnus would go for such a quick draw, but was happy to also get another day to recover before returning for the tiebreak.
'I didn’t really think Magnus would go for a quick draw today but I realised soon that he just wants to make a draw. I’m also fine with that. I’m also feeling a little exhausted. Now I can just give everything tomorrow and relax after that,' he said.
The first match of the final on Tuesday had also ended in a draw, after 35 moves each. Both players now have 1 point each in the final and action moves to Thursday when shorter time controlled games will be played played to decide the 2023 World Cup winner.
'It’ll definitely be tough tomorrow,' said Pragg about the next round of matches. 'I just want to go with a fresh mind by getting some rest today which is very important. I have been playing a lot of tiebreaks here so it can take a lot of games (for a result) or it can be a short one as well. I have to be ready for everything,' he added.
On Monday Praggnanandhaa had pulled off a big upset by entering the finals of the FIDE World Cup by defeating world number three GM Fabiano Caruana.
The win also helped him book his seat for the Candidates Tournament to be held in Canada next year. The winner of that event will challenge Chinese GM Liren Ding, the reigning world champion for the world title.
On his way to the final, Praggnanandhaa had also defeated American world number 2 GM Hikaru Nakamura.
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