Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa stun world no 1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament. R 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.
The Indian Grandmaster lies in joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points.
R Praggnanandhaa spectacular win over Carlsen comes after a moderate run in the earlier rounds, which include a solitary victory over Lev Aronian, two draws and four defeats.
He drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost to Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost the world championship match a few months ago to the Norwegian world no 1 Carlsen, is on top of the standings with 19 points follow by Ding Liren and Hansen (both on 15 points).
R Praggnanandhaa, 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.
Who is R Praggnanandhaa?
A chess prodigy, he is the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM), behind Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov.
R Praggnanandhaa won the World Youth Chess Championships Under-8 title in 2013, earning him the title of FIDE Master at the age of 7.
R Praggnanandhaa won the Under-10 title in 2015.
In 2016, R Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days.
In April 2021, R Praggnanandhaa won the Polgar Challenge, the first leg (out of four) of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, a rapid online event organize by Julius Baer Group and Chess24.com for young talents.
R Praggnanandhaa play in the Masters section of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022, winning games against Andrey Esipenko, Vidit Gujrathi and Nils Grandelius, finishing in 12th place with a final score of 5.5 points.
