Praggnanandhaa defeats Carlsen: What is classical chess?

The Norway Chess 2024 now welcomes GM Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu as the new leader as he beats the exemplary chess payer GM Magnus Carlsen for the very first time ever in classical chess. The other player who earned the full three points against GM Ding Liren was Fabiano Caruana. On the other hand, GM Hikaru Nakamura successfully beat GM Alireza Firouzja.

Talking about the Women's Norway Chess, all three clashes were decided in armageddon. The very first one was the victory of GM Humpy Koneru against GM Lei Tingjie. Next was the one between GM Pia Cramling and GM Ju Wenjun, where the former drew the game as White. The third one was between GM Vaishali Rameshbabu and GM Anna Muzychuk, where the former held to a draw as Black.

Understanding Classical Chess

Classical chess is a form of chess that is also popularly known as the slow chess or the standard chess. It is a type in which time control is the key aspect of the game, and every player holds a significant amount of time for making all their master moves. The time is usually at least 60 minutes. Historically, the game had several pauses in between. However, these days, the game comes with a one-sitting match that is played at a stress.

Classical chess stands as the longest form of chess besides the correspondence form of chess. The latter can take place over several days as well.

Diving a bit into history

Historically speaking, classical chess was longer than they are today.

The very first international chess tournament was held in the year 1851 in London. However, in the times earlier than that, players were allowed to take as long as they wished to make their moves. This gave the players ample time to think and make their moves in a calculative manner, however, many players also exploited this privilege. Games in those days lasted for the entire day.

However, it was later in that decade that clocks were introduced, and this finally limited the players to a specific amount of time. For instance, the players were provided with a time frame of 15 moves per hour.

In the 20th century, a classical game of chess provided the players with a time frame of two hours for making 40 moves. In the year 2023, the players however usually get 90 minutes or so to make their initial 40 moves in a game of classical chess.