The second game of the final on Wednesday ended in a draw after 30 moves. The two players, after one and a half hours of play, opted for a quiet draw in the second classical game.The winner will be determined by two tie-breaks on Thursday now.
“Now I can just give everything tomorrow and relax after that,” the 18-year old prodigy said after the second game.
Praggnanandhaa was a bit surprised on Wednesday as Carlsen went for a quick draw with white pieces.
“I didn’t really think that he would go for a quick draw today, but I realised when he went for this line that he wanted to make a draw; I was also fine with that,” Praggnanandhaa said.
The youngster said that he was feeling exhausted and also disclosed that he realised Carlsen was under the weather during the first game.
“I also feel exhausted, as I said in the previous interviews. I did feel that he did not have a lot of energy. I hope he recovers tomorrow,” he said.
Praggnanandhaa also bats for an extra rest day before the final and said: “Yeah, if it is there. It would be good.”
“I am definitely getting used to this. It is good to see so many people following chess. Chess is definitely getting popular, that way I am very happy,” the Indian star said about the media attention he was getting.
Praggnanandhaa, 18, has had a fantastic run in the competition, defeating world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No.3 Fabiano Caruana to set up a final encounter with the Norwegian Grandmaster.
The current tournament performances also enabled Praggnandhaa qualify for the Candidates 2024 competition, which will be hosted in Canada.
Praggnanandhaa thus became the third youngest player to qualify for the Candidates event, following Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.
The two tie-break games in rapid format will be played with a time control of 25 minutes for each player plus 10 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.
As it happened: World Cup Final Game 2
If those two games also fail to throw a winner, two more games with time control of 5 minutes for each player will be played. There will be a 3 seconds increment per move, starting from move 1.
Praggnanandhaa is only the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to reach the World Cup final.