What were you doing at age 16? Whatever it was, it probably wasn’t “beating the world’s top chess player” – but that’s a feat Indian grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa can now claim.
The Chennai-born prodigy, who often goes by simply “Pragg”, faced off against world chess champion Magnus Carlsen in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour 2022 online tournament, and – despite coming off a losing streak – beat the Norwegian kingpin in 39 moves (while playing black, no less).
Pragg is the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the rank of grandmaster, which he secured at just 12 years, 10 months and 13 days of age; he is also the youngest international master ever, and now the third Indian player to best Carlsen in any time format.
Indian sporting legends such as fellow Carlsen-slaying chess star Viswanathan Anand and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar have congratulated Pragg, who told Indian international news network WION he had been very excited to match wits with top players.
“I was very happy to win against the world champion, and it gives me huge confidence and (a) boost in general,” he said.
For his part, Carlsen has blamed the shock loss in part on the aftermath of another epic bout – with COVID-19.
“It’s been pretty bad. I played a couple of decent games, but the rest of them have been poor. I need to do a lot better than that.
“The first couple of days I was feeling like I’m OK, but I didn’t have the energy, which made it hard to focus because every time I tried to think I blundered,” he said.
If that’s the case, maybe the rest of us have a chance as well…
