His persistence rewarded with a victory: Viswanathan Anand praises Carlsen on his 1st FIDE WC win

CHENNAI: Legendary Indian Grandmaster (GM) Viswanathan Anand congratulated World Champion Magnus Carlsen on winning his first Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE) World Cup title against 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster (GM) R Praggnanandhaa on Thursday.

He took to his X handle and tweeted, "In the end, it's Magnus! His persistence is rewarded with a victory in the only tournament that eluded him so far! Congratulations to the #FIDEWorldCup2023 winner Magnus Carlsen!." (sic)

Viswanathan Anand also praised R Praggnanandhaa for finishing second in the final. "Praggnanandhaa can come back with a candidates spot and a truly wonderful result," he tweeted.

Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa's coach R B Ramesh wrote on 'X': Congratulations @MagnusCarlsen for a well-deserved World Cup title! Well done @rpragchess! Lots of good memories and some hard lessons as well. Onward !"

Fabiano Caruana clinched third place in the FIDE World Cup final and secured a ticket to the FIDE Candidates tournament next year, after prevailing against Nijat Abasov in the tiebreaks.