Losing or winning match was not important: Pragganandhaa's father

After Indian Grandmaster R Pragganandhaa finished as a runner-up in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Cup, his father Ramesh Babu said on Thursday that losing and winning was not important but playing against World No 1 was a bigger thing.

World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen defeated India's grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa to clinch the title of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan.

"In the final, he played against world no 1 Magnus Carlsen. Losing or winning this match was not important but playing against world no 1 was very important...Next, he will go to Germany to play another tournament," Pragganandhaa's father told ANI.

The Norwegian chess grandmaster won the first game of the Rapid Chess tie-breaker with black pieces and managed to hold on for a draw in the second game with white pieces. The tiebreaker is played in a Rapid Chess quicker-time control format. Praggnanandhaa fought hard but fell short with Carlsen summoning all his big match experience when it mattered the most.

Earlier on Wednesday Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen drew both their games of Classical Chess.

Praggnanandhaa had to settle for the position of runner-up of the 2023 FIDE World Cup but he will draw hope from the fact that he has qualified for the FIDE Candidates tournament.

The 2024 Candidates Tournament will be an eight-player chess tournament scheduled to be held from April 2 to April 25, 2024 in Toronto, Canada. The winner of the tournament will become the challenger for the 2024 World Chess Championship match.

Praggnanandhaa had an excellent tournament where he defeated World No 2 Hikaru Nakamura in a tie-breaker while reaching the final defeating World No 3 Fabiano Caruana.