R Praggnanandhaa, the young Indian grandmaster, created history by defeating world number 1 Magnus Carlsen at the online rapid chess tournament Airthings Masters.
The 16-year-old Chess prodigy from Chennai managed to break Carlsen’s three-match-winning streak by defeating him in the 8th round of the game.
Praggnanandhaa’s victory was special as he had lost 3 consecutive games on the first day. Against Carlsen, he was playing as Black. Following the big win, Praggnanandhaa became only the third Indian ever to have defeated Carlsen after Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna. He is now at the 12th position in the tournament.
Talking about his historic achievement, Anand who mentors Praggnanandhaa, told ESPN:
What I really admire about him is that he takes the blows and does it his way, as the song goes. In Wijk aan Zee he had some really tough blows but still fought and beat (Andrey) Esipenko in the last round. The first day in the current tournament was really bad for him but on the second day he came up with two very good wins. His fighting spirit is really something.
Born in 2005, R Praggnandhaa’s sister, Vaishali Rameshbabu, is also a noted Indian chess player. he was just 7 when he secured the title of FIDE Master – an open title below Grandmaster and International Master.
This is not the first time he has made India proud in the world of chess. In 2016, he became the youngest International Master in history at 10 years. In 2018, Praggnandhaa became the second youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of 12. In 2019, he won the U-18 World Chess Championship.
The entire world is celebrating his victory.
It was 2 in the morning when the match got over and when Praggnanandhaa was asked about his celebratory plans, he said:
I’m just going to go to bed.
What a brilliant kid!