New Delhi: Indian Chess Grandmaster (GM) R Praggnanandhaa defeated World No.1, Magnus Carlsen, in the eighth round of the online rapid chess championship at the Airthings Masters 2022 on Monday, February 21, 2022.
The match began in the Tarrasch variation. Praggnanandhaa played Black while Carlsen played white. The Norwegian GM made blunders against the 16-year-old and lost three games in a row, whereas the 16-year-old Indian won the tournament with 39 moves in black pieces.
The Indian teen drew the match against Uzbek GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov in round 9 and successfully beat Russian Grandmasters on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.
He ousted Andrey Esipenko by 42 moves in Round 10 and defeated former women’s world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk in a 63-moves encounter in round 12. However, Praggnanandhaa lost to Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in round 11 of the Airthings Masters.
He will face Germany’s Vincent Keymer, USA’s Hans Moke Niemann, and Russian Vladislav Artemiev in rounds 13, 14, and 15.
Nepomniachtchi ranks the highest on the leaderboard with 27 points, while Carlsen has a joint second place with Artemiev and Keymer at 20 points. On the other hand, Praggnanandhaa stands at 12th place with 15 points.
Airthings Masters is a 16-player online rapid tournament where a player receives three points for a win and one point for a draw during the Preliminary rounds.
(Avya Mathur)
