16 year old Indian chess GM Praggnanandhaa defeats World number 1 Magnus Carlsen
India’s 16-year-old Grandmaster R Pragnananda has made big headlines in the online rapid chess tournament AirThings Masters. He defeated world number one chess player Magnus Carlsen in a one-sided match. In the game played on Monday morning, Praggnanandha started playing with black pieces and defeated Carlsen in 39 moves.
Indian star reached number 12
After this victory, Praggnanandhaa has reached number 12 and the Indian Grandmaster has 8 points. He had previously only registered a win against Lev Aronian. Apart from this, he played two games in a draw, while he had to face defeat in 4. Praggnanandhaa had drawn matches against Anish Giri and Quang Liem, while losing to Erik Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan Krzysztof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Ian Nepomniachtchi tops the tournament
Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost his World Championship match to Norway’s Carlsen a few months ago, is at the top of the tournament with 19 points. The player gets 3 points for every win and 1 point for a draw. There are still 7 rounds of bets to be played in the first step.
When Pragnananda was 12 years old in 2018, he broke the record of India’s legendary chess player Vishwanath Anand. He had achieved the title of Grandmaster. Viswanathan achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 18. Prior to this, Pragnananda has also won the title of becoming the Youngest International Master in 2016.
