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Praggnanandhaa upstages Carlsen in Airthings Masters chess
The 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster cashed in on the Norwegian world champion’s blunder to pull off the dream victory in the online rapid event.
In contemporary chess, a win over five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen is the summit his peers are constantly striving to scale. It was accomplished by R Praggnanandhaa in the wee hours of Monday, becoming only the third Indian, after Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna, to get the better of the world No 1.
Praggnanandhaa’s victory with black pieces came when the Norwegian resigned after 39 moves in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament. At 16, he is now the youngest player to defeat Carlsen since the latter became world champion for the first time in 2013.
Praggu also defeated Levon Aronian on Sunday, making up for his indifferent start on Saturday when he lost three of his four games. He is the youngest at the event, which includes Carlsen, Aronian and several other top-10 players like Ding Liren, Ian Nepomniatchi, Anish Giri and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. It is a round robin competition, leading up to the quarter-finals.
The Indian player’s precocious talent has been on view for some time now. In June 2018, the boy from Chennai had become the second youngest Grandmaster (GM) in the world at 12 years, 10 months and 13 days. He has since slipped to fifth in that list.
“I was not aware that I am only the third Indian to beat Magnus. It feels good. This win is a huge confidence booster for me,” said Praggnanandhaa on Monday.
The win over Carlsen is the biggest of his career till date, but coach RB Ramesh—also a GM—is known as a hard taskmaster.
“This was in the rapid format. Beating him in standard time control will be even more creditworthy. Standard time control gives players more time to think. You don’t miss simple things,” he said. “Magnus is extremely good in all time controls.”
The time control for this event is 15 minutes plus a 10-second increment per move for each player.
This was the third time Praggu faced Carlsen in a tournament. He lost to the reigning world champion at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, last month, while their other meeting was drawn. “I’ve played many games against Carlsen online before. I wanted to play positive chess and take the chances that came my way. I am glad to see that it worked,” Praggu said.
He seized his chance on Monday once Carlsen made a blunder in the 32nd move. “Carlsen made a mistake when he played Knight C3. It was difficult to come back from that. Praggu saw it through smoothly,” Ramesh said.
Praggu’s win is another important step in his growth as a chess player. At the Tata Steel event in January, he overcame a few off-the-board hurdles to finish a creditable 12th. The biggest challenge was the absence of Ramesh at the venue after the coach tested positive for Covid soon after landing in Netherlands.
“I had to isolate in another room and could speak to him only through video calls. Emotionally, it was very tough for someone as young as him. On the way to the venue, it was very dark and cold. There was a cemetery on the way too. He did not complain even once about the circumstances,” said Ramesh.
With only the top eight advancing to the knockouts, Praggu still has a big battle on his hands. He is joint-12th with eight points after eight rounds. The quarter-finals will be held on February 23 (Wednesday) while the semi-finals and final will be played from February 24 to 26.
