A teen sensation on the rise! In the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, 16-year-old Indian Chess Grandmaster R Praggnanaddhaa astonished the world by defeating World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the online rapid chess format.
Carlsen’s three-match winning streak in the competition came to an end when the teenager upset him with black pieces. Carlsen had to undo the World No. 1 in around 19 moves.
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The unexpected win
Praggnanandhaa was on a three-game losing skid when he encountered Carlsen, which is interesting to note. The Indian prodigy went on to defeat the Norwegian and complete the competition in fifth position.
Before the match versus Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa had only won one game in total. That victory had come against Lav Aronian. Aside from that, he has a total of two draws and four losses. The draws were against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le, respectively. The players against whom the teenager has lost are Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Praggnanandhaa was exhausted after the fast-paced game of wits, and all he wanted to do was sleep. “I just want to hit the bed,” he told the International Chess Federation website with groggy eyes.
It was his “I can’t believe it” moment, which had always been a part of his wildest fantasy. Carlsen, the uncontested ruler of chess, a bona fide GOAT, and the game’s commercial face, has long been his idol. “Beating him once is my biggest dream,” he told to a newspaper four years ago, just after becoming the world’s second youngest Grandmaster. He had explained, “He (Carlsen) has a solution for even the most complicated problem.”
But there was no answer this time, and Praggnanandhaa’s dream came true. After Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna, he is only the third Indian to defeat Carlsen, demonstrating his immense potential. The fact that he defeated him in 39 moves and with black pieces, a perceived disadvantage in the game, adds to the brilliance of his triumph.
R Praggnanandhaa’s game plan
He was aggressive from the outset, putting Carlsen on the back foot, but he squandered a golden opportunity to end the game in the middle stages. But he regained his composure and bounced back, putting constant pressure on Carlsen, who blundered and cracked.
Perhaps more crucially, India has found a potential successor to Anand as well as a poster boy for the country’s upcoming chess boom – the Indian Chess League, which will begin in June with a prize pool of at least Rs 2 crore, is poised to begin.
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All you need to know about R Praggnanandhaa
He was born on August 10, 2005, in Chennai, as Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the younger brother of renowned Indian chess player Vaishali Rameshbabu. After Abhimanyu Mishra, Gukesh D, Sergey Karjakin, and Javokhir Sindarovt, he is the fifth-youngest person to earn Grandmaster status.
In 2013, Praggnanandhaa won the Under-8 World Youth Chess Championship. At the age of seven, he won the FIDE Master title, which is an open title that falls between Grandmaster and International Master.
His winning streak continued in 2016, when he became the world’s youngest International Master at the age of ten years, ten months, and nine days. After Russian chess star Sergey Karjakin, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest Grandmaster two years later, at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days.
Viswanathan Anand, a five-time world champion and India’s first Grandmaster, congratulated Praggnanandhaa on his triumph in a tweet.
Great to see our Waca boy trend !! https://t.co/riAjADVtg8
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) February 23, 2022
According to an ESPN article, Praggnanadhaa has completely avoided social media. According to his coach, RB Ramesh, this helps to relieve the stress of being monitored. “The burden of expectation can get to him at times. When he loses, it sometimes affects him more than it should. He’s working on it, but he’s just 16 and I’m really glad at how he’s handled himself against some of the top guys,” RB Ramesh was quoted as saying by ESPN.
“There was no unnecessary distraction and he could focus entirely on his game. He was not obsessed with that record, but there was too much attention on him. But after that, he was certainly more relaxed and put in a lot of hard work,” says his father Ramesh Babu.
