Young Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa stunned world no 1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament. He won with black pieces in 39 moves in a Tarrasch variation game early on Monday to halt Carlsen's run of three straight wins.
The Airthings Masters is a 16-player online rapid tournament in which a player gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. Seven more rounds remain in the preliminary phase.
The Indian grandmaster lies in joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points. His spectacular win over the world champion Carlsen comes after a moderate run in the earlier rounds, which included a solitary victory over Lev Aronian, two draws and four defeats.
He drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost to Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost the world championship match a few months ago to the Norwegian world no 1 Carlsen, is on top of the standings with 19 points followed by Ding Liren and Hansen (both on 15 points).
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is a chess prodigy. Born in 2005, Praggnanandhaa is the fifth youngest person to have won the title of Grandmaster. As per the website Chess.com, at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days, he became the then second youngest grandmaster in chess history. He scored his third grandmaster norm at the fourth Gredine open in Ortisei, Italy. He still holds the record of being the world's youngest international master at the age of 10.
(With inputs from agencies)
