Report by Swasti Sharma
Indian chess prodigy (the young children who play chess with modern techniques/ methods and use their mind which is unexpected in that age), Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, defeated Norwegian world champion Magnus Carlsen at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament on 20th May 2022.
R. Praggnanandhaa is a 16-year-old chess player from India.
He is the fifth youngest person to achieve the title of Grandmaster (a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE). He got the title in 2018.
Sven Magnus Oen Carlsen is a 31-years-old chess Grandmaster from Norway.
This is the second time in three months that Praggnanandhaa beat Magnus Carlsen in online mode.
The Indian chess master’s first ever victory against Carlsen was at February’s Airthings Masters tournament.
In February, he had won the eighth round of Airthings Masters rapid chess tournament (the annual chess tournament held by FIDE to determine the chess world champions play under rapid time controls).
The chess masters could have a draw. But after Praggnanandhaa’s 40th move, his opponent misplayed his knight (a piece of game which has the shape of horse) that made Praggnanandhaa win.
In the 16-player game, each contestant gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds.
The third edition of the Chessable Masters began on May 19.
Apart from Praggnanandhaa, the 16-person tournament also features the world’s youngest Grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra (USA).
Praggnanandhaa went on to beat China’s Wei Yi 2.5-1.5 in the quarterfinals. He then played Anish Giri (Netherlands) in the semi-finals and won 2-1.
The other semi-finals match was a draw, so Praggnanandhaa’s opponent in the finals has not been updated in the official tournament draws yet.
The finals will be held on May 25 and May 26. The winner will be crowned the world’s best online chess player in November.