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February 24, 2022 07:00 am

16-Year-Old Chess Prodigy Defeats World Champion Magnus Carlsen

India's teen chess grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 16, just become the youngest person to defeat Magnus Carlsen (Warning: source paywalled; alternative source), 31, since he became world champion in 2013. The New York Times reports: While his defeat of Carlsen, who has been struggling from the aftereffects of a Covid-19 infection, does not affect the International Chess Federation world title, it nevertheless stunned the chess world and elated people in India. [...] Praggnanandhaa orchestrated his defeat over Carlsen in 39 moves. It was all the more remarkable because he was playing with the black pieces, moving second, with the disadvantages that entails, particularly in elite chess. "He controlled the game, it felt, from start to finish, which is what Magnus does to people," said Levy Rozman, an international master who recaps tournaments and discusses strategy on his YouTube channel, GothamChess, which has more than 1.4 million subscribers. Carlsen, who was also a top player as a teenager, opened with the Queen's Gambit, moving his queen's pawn to d4. Praggnanandhaa declined the gambit. (Replay the game at Chess24.) In the early and middle stages of the game, Rozman said, Carlsen played a precise game, successfully gaining a pawn, and then another, putting him at an advantage, but Praggnanandhaa compensated by keeping the pieces he still had on the board active and swarming Carlsen's king. "He used what was remaining on the board to launch a devastating counterattack," Rozman said. The game turned definitively at the 32nd move, when Carlsen made a move with his knight that was later viewed as an error. The decision prompted David Howell, a British grandmaster and a commentator on the chess streaming platform Chess24, to ask, "Is this clever, or is this madness?" The answer was soon clear. Praggnanandhaa quickened his pace and Carlsen appeared visibly frustrated. Seven moves and about 10 minutes later, it was over. After Praggnanandhaa's win, Kaja Snare, a commentator for Chess24, asked him how he would celebrate. "I think it's about just going to bed, because I don't think I will have dinner at 2:30 in the morning," Praggnanandhaa said.

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