India's Praggnanandhaa Defeats 5-Time World Champion Carlsen At Airthings Masters

The 16-year-old grandmaster from India, Rameshbabu Pragnanandhaa, stunned five-time world champion, Magnus Carlsen, in the eighth round of Airthings Masters by pulling off a remarkable feat. The young Indian ended Carlsen's three wins in 39 moves only. Praggnanandhaa beat 31-year-old Carlsen – the current number 1 in the world - in a Tarrasch variation game with black pieces. Carlsen previously had three wins to his name, but after his shocking defeat that Pragnanandhaa's hands, the Norweigan player finished at the fifth spot.

What Is Airthings Masters Tournament?

Pragnanandhaa played a decent game in the earlier rounds and pulled off a solitary victory against Lee Aronian. The chess prodigy previously drew against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost to Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda, and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Zee News reported. Airthings Masters is a 16-player game in which each player gets three points for winning a match and one point for ending in a draw in the preliminary rounds. Apart from that, there are seven more rounds in the preliminary phase. This was Pragnanandhaa's first win against the mighty Carlsen in any chess format.

Other Remarkable Feats By Young Pragnanandhaa

In 2018, the chess prodigy became the fifth-youngest person to achieve the title of a grandmaster after Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov.In 2013, he had won the World Championships title for the under eight category in 2013 and the under-10 tag in 2015. Moreover, in 2016, he became the youngest international master in history at 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days. Praggnanandhaa played in the Master's section of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022, winning games against Andrey Esipenko, Vidit Gujrathi and Nils Grandelius, finishing in 12th place with a final score of 5.5 points.

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