Who is R Praggnanandhaa? 16-year-old Indian GM who defeated World No.1 Magnus Carlsen

16-year old Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa picked up a big win and made headlines after he stunned World Number one Magnus Carlsen from Norway in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament. R Praggnanandhaa who was playing with black pieces completed the win in 39 moves. 

With this, he became the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster. This isn't the first of achievements for the youngster, back in 2016 he became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days. Earlier he also had won the World Youth Chess Championships U-8 title in 2013, which earned him the title of FIDE Master at the age of 7. 

R Praggnanandhaa had earlier revealed that he got his love for chess from his sister who is also an international master. It is also learnt that his mother carries an induction-coil stove, rice and masalas to tours and cooks everything from sambar rice to thair sadaam (curd rice) for him.

In the Airthings Masters, Praggnanandhaa drew the first round with Le Quang Liem of Vietnam before he lost to Canadian Eric Hensen, Chinese Ding Liren and Poland's Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The next day he began with a draw against Dutch player Anish Giri before he lost to Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan. He managed a win against America's Levon Aronian.

Praggnanandhaa beats Magnus Carlsen

However, in a surprise, Praggnanandhaa beats Magnus Carlsen and brought an end to Carlsen's run of three consecutive victories. Back in January 2022, the young Indian Grandmaster won games against Andrey Esipenko, Vidit Gujrathi and Nils Grandelius and finished 12th with a final score of 5.5 points in the Masters' section of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022.

As far as the current standings are concerned, Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi is leading with 19 points followed by Ding Liren and Hansen, both of who are on 15 points. The 16-player online rapid tournament sees players get three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. At the time of writing, seven more rounds remain in the preliminary phase.

Image: ANI