Chess World Cup Final 2023: What Happens If R Praggnanandhaa vs Magnus Carlsen Game 2 Also Ends In A Draw?

An intense battle is going on between R Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen in the final of the 2023 Chess World Cup. Get to know how the winner will be decided if the Game 2 between them also finishes in a draw.

Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa. (Source: Twitter)

R Praggnanandhaa is a name that you have probably read more than Virat Kohli or Rohit Sharma in the past few days. The Indian Grandmaster has been in news due to his brilliant run in the ongoing Chess World Cup 2023, which is being played in Baku of Azerbaijan. In the final, Praggnanandhaa is facing World No 1 Magnus Carlsen. The Indian prodigy showed great form in the Game 1 of final eventually drawing it after 35 moves while playing with the white pieces. The champion of the World Cup will be decided on Wednesday (August 23) in Game 2.

It was expected that Carlsen was going to beat Praggnanandhaa in Game 1 itself but nothing of that sort happened as the 18-year-old gave a stiff fight to the World No 1 on Tuesday. Carlsen later gave 'food poisoning' as the reason behind him not at his best during Game 1. "I got some food poisoning after the game against (Nijat) Abasov. I haven't been able to eat for the last two days. This also meant that I was really calm because I had no energy to be nervous," the Norwegian said.

Carlsen had admitted that the Game 2 will be see some fight as Praggnanandhaa will try and push him very hard. He hopes the rest he gets will help him come back fresh for Game 2. "Normally, I would just probably have a bit of an advantage having a rest day while he had to play a tough tie-break yesterday but I've been in a pretty rough shape the last couple of days," said Carlsen.

"Playing as White, the 18-year-old Indian prodigy, Praggnanandhaa, couldn't obtain a significant advantage over the former World Champion Carlsen. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana suffered a surprising defeat against local player Nijat Abasov in the match for third place."_ pic.twitter.com/QlGZx1LaVD — International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 23, 2023

"I don't think I was in any trouble at all," Praggnanandhaa said after the game. However Carlsen will have the advantage of playing white in the second game of the two-match classical series on Wednesday. Praggnanandhaa said later in an interaction posted on the 'X' (formerly Twitter) handle of FIDE: "Rb8, I felt I should have done something there. But maybe this position is just solid and I don't have anything. What I played there was not the best try but I could not find anything."

How will the champion be decided if even Game 2 is a draw?

After the Game 1 of World Cup final ended as a draw, the one who wins Game 2 will win the Championship. However, if even the Game 2 is a draw, then we will see a tiebreaker being played between the two players until we have a winner.

How the tie-breakers will be played?

If Game 2 too ends in a draw then it would go into two tiebreak games with time control of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. There will be a draw to decide who starts with white pieces. If that too ends up in a draw then there will be two games of 10 minutes + 10 seconds per move. If that's a draw as well then there will again be two games of 5 minutes + 3 seconds. If we don't have a winner even after this game, then will have a 3 minutes + 2 secs increment, called the Blitz gam, which will continue till a winner is decided.

The Game 2 of final between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen will start at 4.30 pm IST on August 23. There will be no TV broadcast of the match in India but the fans can watch the match on FIDE Chess' YouTube and Twitch channels.