For the second time in three months, Indian Grand Master Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu defeated world champion, Magnus Carlsen. In the fifth round of the Chessable Masters online rapid chess competition, Praggnanandhaa defeated Carlsen, keeping his playoff hopes alive. The match between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen was on the verge of being drawn when the latter made a catastrophic error that cost him the match. After Viswanathan Anand and P Harikrishna, Praggnanandhaa is the third Indian to defeat Carlsen in a chess game.
Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen were locked in a tight battle until the latter lost the game after making a mistake in his 40th move. Carlsen misplayed his knight, which was swiftly picked up on by Praggnanandhaa, who promptly declared a check. Praggnanandhaa revealed after the match that he was doing exams at the time. The 16-year-old also remarked that his game quality was lacking and that he needed to sharpen his skills.
Praggnanandhaa had previously defeated Carlsen in the Airthings Masters in February. In the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, another online chess competition, Praggnanandhaa defeated Carlsen. Since Carlsen was declared world champion in 2013, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player to defeat him in a chess game. In January 2022, the young Indian Grandmaster defeated Andrey Esipenko, Vidit Gujrathi, and Nils Grandelius to finish 12th in the Masters’ portion of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 with a final score of 5.5 points.
In 2018, Praggnanandhaa, a chess prodigy from Tamil Nadu, was named Grandmaster. He was the second-youngest Grandmaster at the time, but he has since been dethroned by Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D, and Javokhir Sindarov, and is now fifth on the list. He had previously won the World Youth Chess Championships U-8 title in 2013, earning him the FIDE Master title at the age of seven.
