16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has pulled off a remarkable feat. During the eighth round of an online rapid chess tournament Airthings Masters, he stunned World Champion Magnus Carlsen in just 39 moves to put an end to Carlsen’s three straight wins.
Praggnanandhaa beat 31-year-old Carlsen – the current number 1 in the world - in a Tarrasch variation game with black pieces.
Carlsen had three wins in a row but after his shocking defeat to Praggnanandhaa, the Norwegian finished fifth – up from 11th on the leader board yesterday.
Praggnanandhaa is in joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points. In the earlier rounds, he was decent and included just a solitary victory over Lev Aronian, two draws and four defeats.
The teenager drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost to Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Airthings Masters is a 16-player game where each player gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. There are seven more rounds in the preliminary phase.
The spectacular game was Praggnanandhaa first win in any form of chess against Carlsen.
“I think it’s about just going to bed,” Praggnanandhaa told the International Chess Federation (FIDE) when asked how he was going to celebrate the win.
A chess prodigy, Praggnanandhaa is the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster. He got the title in 2018.
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