Carlsen congratulates colleagues despite playing fast chess

At the tie-break series of the fourth round of the Chess World Cup, 18-year-old player Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu surprised the second seed Nakamura with two quick wins. After Nakamura's defeat, Carlsen stood up and walked over to Praggnanandhaa to congratulate him. After more than 10 seconds, he returned to the table with Vincent Keymer. At that time, Carlsen still had more than 12 minutes, while Keymer had just under a minute.

That game of Carlsen was drawn, but after four quick games he won 2.5-1.5 to enter the 1/8 round. In an interview after his win over Keymer, Carlsen revealed what he said to Praggnanandhaa during the match. "Pragnanandhaa's coach is Ramesh Ramachandran, and he is also teaching at my club's chess summer camp," he said. "Ramesh always tells talented young players to do like Praggnanandhaa. So I told Praggnanandhaa that today everyone wants to be like him."

Two days earlier, when Carlsen fell to Keymer in the first standard game of the fourth round, Nakamura also watched and grimaced in surprise. Carlsen ended up winning backwards, while Nakamura was eliminated. Carlsen and Nakamura are considered the two strongest players in the world today, especially in fast chess.

Nakamura's elimination opened up more championship opportunities for Carlsen, when the Open group was only 16 players. Carlsen's opponent in the 1/8 round is 54-year-old player Vasyl Ivanchuk. "Ivanchuk is still very strong and the match will not be easy," added the Norwegian player. "But in theory Ivanchuk is not the most annoying opponent possible in this round."

Praggnanandhaa was once the youngest player to win against Carlsen, in the online fast chess tournament of the Champions Chess Tour 2022. Later his record was surpassed by Gukesh Dommaraju. The 18-year-old player is ranked 29th in the world with Elo 2,707.

The first game of the 1/8 round takes place at 6 pm today, Saturday, August 12, Hanoi time, and Praggnanandhaa will meet Ferenc Berkes. Other notable matches include third seed Fabiano Caruana against defending champion Jan Krzysztof Duda, or former world runner-up Ian Nepomniachtchi against Vidit Santosh Gujrathi.