August 24, 2023, may well turn out to be a red-letter day in India's chess history. Indian teen sensation R. Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen will be up against in the tie-breaker match of the Chess World Cup.
Both the games of the classical series final ended in draw. The first game on Tuesday had ended in a stalemate after over four hours of play and 70-plus moves. The second game the next day, too, failed to throw up a winner, ending in a draw after 30 moves in around one-and-a-half hours of play.
Praggnanandhaa, 18, has already beaten world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No.3 Fabiano Caruana. Praggnanandhaa is only the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to reach the World Cup final.
He has qualified for Candidates 2024 tournament, which will be held in Canada, becoming the third youngest player after the legendary Bobby Fischer and Carlsen to qualify for the Candidates tournament.
When will the Chess World Cup final tie-breaker be played?
The Chess World Cup final tie-breaker between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen will be played on August 24 at 4.30pm IST.
What is the format of the Chess World Cup final tie-breaker?
First tie-break stage
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. If those two games also fail to throw a winner, the game moves to the second stage.
Second tie-break stage
Two rapid games will be played with a time control of 10 minutes, plus a 10-second increment. The game will move on to the third stage, if a winner is still undecided.
Third tie-break stage
A two-game blitz series is played, where each player is given five minutes, with an additional three seconds added after each move. Then comes the last stage.
Sudden death blitz
The time control for each game is three minutes, with a two-second increment. Lots will be drawn to determine which player plays white. If drawn, the players will switch colours and play again, until a decisive result is obtained.