Indian Chess sensation R Praggnanadhaa defeats world champion Magnus Carlsen

The teen Indian chess sensation, R Praggnanandhaa, left the entire chess fraternity in awe as he defeated the 31-year-old reigning five-time World Champion GM Magnus Carlsen with black pieces during the ongoing Airthings Masters.

The youngest player in the field, Praggnanandhaa was enduring a tough time in the event when he was pitted against Carlsen in the eighth round. The 16-year-old had by then won only a solitary game over Armenian GM Levon Aronian, while drawing two and losing all his remaining games.

 Against Carlsen though, the young Praggnanandhaa was right on the money. Plying his trade with the black pieces, the Tamil Nadu lad seemed to have landed a good position during the middle game but failed to convert it into something big.

His chances looked a lot slimmer from here with Carlsen playing all his best moves, but the Indian kept himself alive with some wonderful play with his queen and knight. The World Champion, who is known for his determined approach, eventually relented and resigned the game to hand Praggnanandhaa a win in 39 moves.

R Praggnanandhaa, a child chess prodigy, is the fifth youngest chess player to become a Grandmaster in the world. he is now the third Indian GM to have defeated Magnus Carlson after Vishwanathan Anand and P.Harikrishna. The Indian, who won the World Youth Chess Championships U-8 title in 2013, which earned him the title of FIDE Master at the age of 7, currently has eight points and is in the joint 12th spot after eight rounds. Following the Carlsen success, Praggnanandhaa now has two wins, two draws and four losses. On Sunday, Praggnanandhaa drew the first round with Le Quang Liem of Vietnam and lost to Canadian Eric Hensen, Chinese Ding Liren and Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda.

The Airthings Masters is an online event played in the rapid format - 15 mins + 10 seconds, as a part of the Champions Chess Tour.

On this victory, City Spidey contacted the chess coach Sanjeevan Saraswat, who is having 10 years of experience in chess coaching all over the world and is presently settled in Himachal Pradesh he said, “ In chess, every player knows that it's always difficult to win a game with black pieces when the opponent with white pieces is equally strong and if the opponent with white pieces is the world champion himself it would be too hard to bag the victory. So when the Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa defeated the world champion Magnus Carlsen, in the online rapid tournament with black pieces, this victory stunned the whole chess world.

People already know about Praggnanandhaa as he has proven himself so many times since childhood days but this victory can be considered above all as he defeated the present world champion first time during his chess career. I think this victory can be very motivating to upcoming Indian chess kids and can be like a booster dose to their self-confidence, and I will share the big achievement with all my students today. I am sure it’s one of the happiest moments for Praggnandhaa’s coach R.B Ramesh too .”