Twitter user claims ‘chess is new cricket’, Magnus Carlsen cites 4 reasons why it is not

World Champion Magnus Carlsen has hit back at a Twitter user for comparing chess and cricket. Carlsen on Monday won the FTX Crypto Cup but not before losing the final round match to India's grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa. The loss to the Indian chess prodigy was the third for Norwegians in the span of six months.

Magnus Carlsen explains why chess and cricket are different from each other 

Youtubers Abhi and Niyu taking to Twitter tweeted, 'Chess is the new cricket. Prove me wrong!'. Magnus Carlsen while replying to the question wrote that Cricket is played on a field with humans, chess is played on a board with wooden pieces. Cricket has a bat and a ball, chess usually doesn’t. There are 22 players needed for a cricket match, while chess is only two. I can’t play cricket.

Magnus Carlsen congratulates Praggnanandhaa despite losing to Indian GM

Magnus Carlsen on Monday also congratulates R Praggnanandhaa for his performance in the final round of the FTX Crypto Cup on Monday. The Magnus Carlsen vs R Praggnanandhaa match saw R Praggnanandhaa win three straight games including two in the blitz tie-breaks to beat the world's No.1 Magnus Carlsen 4-2. 

The first two games of the Magnus Carlsen vs R Praggnanandhaa match were drawn before Carlsen took the lead by winning the third. However, the young Indian GM won the fourth game to take the match into the tie-breaks. He shocked the Norwegian by winning both the games in the tie-break. Despite the loss, the Norwegian grandmaster won the honours on the basis of a higher score. He finished with 16 match points compared to R Praggnanandhaa who finished the event with a total score of 15.

Before Monday's event, Praggnanandhaa had defeated Carlsen at the Airthings Masters in February, this year. Praggnanandhaa beat Carlsen in the 8th round of the Airthings Masters. With the win, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player to defeat Carlsen in a chess game since the latter was crowned the world champion in 2013. Praggnanandhaa is only the third Indian after Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna to beat Carlsen in a chess game. 

After the game, Carsen congratulated R Praggnanandhaa for his effort during the match with a quirky little tweet in which he said, “Fully deserved, after a performance that showed great resilience, determination, and quality. As for me, I am happy to (barely) be younger than the second and third place finishers combined.”