16-year-old Indian chess prodigy Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa showed off his brilliance at the ongoing Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess competition, to stun the world champion Magnus Carlsen. Praggnanandhaa won with black pieces in 39 moves in a Tarrasch variation game early on Monday to halt Carlsen’s run of three straight wins.
Currently, the 16-year-old lies in joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points. This outstanding win against Carlsen, however, comes after a moderate run in the earlier rounds.
It was Praggnanandhaa’s first win in any form of chess against the Norwegian and came on the back of having lost three games in a row. Carlsen finished down in fifth – up from 11th on the leaderboard yesterday.
“I think it’s about just going to bed,” FIDE’s website quoted Praggnanandha as saying.
Praggnanandhaa drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost to Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
In the Airthings Masters, a 16-player online rapid tournament, a player gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. Seven more rounds remain in the preliminary phase.
(With inputs from agencies)
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