Indian Chess Maestro Praggnanandhaa Stuns World No. 1 Carlsen In Airthings Masters

Guwahati: 16 year old Indian chess wizard Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa caused a major upset by getting the better of world no 1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of an online rapid chess tournament Airthings Masters.

Praggnanandhaa victory came in 39 moves with black pieces in a Tarrasch variation game early on February 22, thereby putting an end to Carlsen's three-game winning streak.

Also, this astonishing victory happens to be just the first win for Praggnanandhaa against Carlsen in any form of Chess.

The Indian chess wizard is currently placed at 12th spot, after eight rounds with eight points.

His form in the buildup to this match was not as good as one would have imagined and he had quite a moderate run in the previous matches. He registered a victory against Lev Aronian and has two draws and four defeats against his name.

Praggnanandhaa drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and suffered defeats at the hands of Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov respectively.

Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia currently tops the standings with 19 points and he is followed by Ding Liren and Hansen, who are tied at 15 points. It is to be noted that Ian suffered defeat in the World Championship match at the hands of the Norwegian world no 1 Carlsen and this match was held a few months ago.

Meanwhile, Airthings Masters is a 16-player game where each player is awarded with 3 points for a win and one point for a draw in the preliminary rounds. There are seven more rounds in the preliminary phase.

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