Airthings Masters: Praggnanandhaa defeats World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen

16-year-old Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa stunned world no 1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of an online rapid chess tournament Airthings Masters.

Praggnanandhaa 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 Indian GM lies in joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points. His spectacular win over Carlsen comes after a moderate run in the earlier rounds, which included a solitary victory over Lev Aronian, two draws and four defeats.

Praggnanandhaa 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).

Airthings Masters is a 16-player game where each player gets three points for a win and one for a draw in the preliminary rounds. There are seven more rounds in the preliminary phase.

The spectacular game was Praggnanandhaa first win in any form of chess against Carlsen.