Abhimanyu Mishra draws against Magnus Carlsen in Total Chess World Championship

In the Total Chess World Championship being held in Budapest, 17-year-old American player Abhimanyu Mishra has secured draws in two matches against the world's number 1 player, Magnus Carlsen. According to a report by Sportstar, Mishra remained undefeated in both these matches played in the third and fourth rounds of the Fast Classical Group Stage. Due to this result, Carlsen had to wait for his first win after four consecutive draws.

There was a significant difference in the ratings of the two players, with Mishra's rating being 2644, while Carlsen entered the field with a rating of 2823. In their first encounter, Mishra played with the black pieces. An 'Italian Game' was played in this match. Despite Carlsen sacrificing a bishop on h6, the game remained balanced, and after a rook exchange on the 50th move, both players agreed to a draw.

In the second match, Mishra had a better opportunity to win. In this match, Carlsen chose the 'Scandinavian Defence', but his position weakened when he moved his king to d7 on the 26th move. Mishra played a strategic move by moving his knight to h5, through which he succeeded in winning the g7 and h6 pawns. This gave Mishra a significant advantage in the match.

However, Carlsen skillfully steered the game towards an 'opposite-colored bishop ending'. As the kingside pawns advanced, Mishra's advantage diminished, and the Norwegian player Carlsen established a strong defensive barrier. The American player Mishra attempted to maintain pressure for a long time, but eventually, both players accepted a draw after the 80th move.

Before the start of this tournament, Mishra told Sportstar that he had accepted the invitation to come here specifically because of the large number of the world's best players. He viewed the opportunity to play two matches against Magnus Carlsen in particular as a great learning opportunity. Additionally, he expressed excitement for the encounters with Anish Giri and Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Following these draw results, Mishra has 3 points in Group C, while Carlsen is on 4 points. In this group, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Hiken Martirosian are leading with 6-6 points, with 6 matches still remaining. Nepomniachtchi secured two draws against Sakhariyar Mamedyarov, while Martirosian and Giri exchanged wins and losses against each other.

Speaking of other results in this tournament, in Group D, Arjun Erigaisi won his second match against Bibisara Assaubayeva with the black pieces. Assaubayeva (rating 2532) had caused a major upset by defeating Arjun (rating 2746) in the third round, but Arjun responded by winning the return match. Currently, both Arjun and Assaubayeva are on 5 points, but Arjun is in third place due to the preliminary blitz tie-break.

On the other hand, R. Vaishali lost both her matches against Hans Niemann, leaving her at the bottom with 1 point. Niemann is tied with Maxime Vachier-Lagrave with 8 points. R. Praggnanandhaa also suffered two losses against Fabiano Caruana and is at the bottom of Group B with 2 points. Caruana is leading with 10 points, while Liam Lie is in second place with 8 points.

In Group A, Alireza Firouzja is leading with 8 points; he defeated Jordan van Foreest and drew his second match. Jan-Krzysztof Duda is in second place with 7 points, having exchanged wins and losses with Nodirbek Abdusattorov.