Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the 17-year-old Indian chess master, defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in the last round of the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, an international chess championship, on Monday morning. With this, the teen beat the world chess champion thrice in a year.
Praggnanandhaa was 16 when he beat the then world no 1 Magnus Carlsen for the first time. It was in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament last February.
The second time he stunned the Norwegian was at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament on May 20.
The face-off had been nearing a draw. But after Praggnanandhaa’s 40th move, his opponent misplayed his knight. The teen had told chess24 he needed to be sharper for the knockout stage. “I’m not so thrilled about my game quality,” Praggnanandhaa had said. "I’m missing some stuff, some tricks and some tactics.”
On Monday, he outwit Carlsen 4-2 in the final round of the FTX Crypto Cup. But, despite the win over Carlsen, the 17-year old could only take second place in the final standings since the Norwegian had a higher score based on previous games.
"I've been playing badly all day, but now I'm getting the results I deserve... it's never good to lose, but this is as good a time as any!," Carlsen said after the match.
Alireza Firouzja, another highly-rated teen and a prodigy, also finished on 15 points but had to settle for third place as he had lost the clash against Praggnanandhaa earlier.
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