Chess: 16-year-old Rameshbabu Pragganandhaa gets better of Magnus Carlsen

Last updated on February 23rd, 2022 at 06:17 am

Rising Indian chess champion Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa beat chess great Magnus Carless on Monday in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament.

For the 16-year-old chess player, it was a massive achievement as the world number 1 Norweignian player is one of the most difficult opponents in the world. The victory confirmed for the Indian player in the eight-round of the chess tournament.

Praggnanadhaa managed to stop Carlsen’s run of three straight wins as he took 39 moves of his black blocs to counter his moves in a Tarrasch variation style. With this win, he has become only the third Indian to beat the Chess king.

Post the match, an Indian daily got in touch with his coach Grandmaster RB Ramesh who was pleasantly surprised with the news. As he could not attend his match live, he got a text message on WhatsApp and as soon as he saw it, Ramesh was ecstatic.

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He said, “When I woke up, I saw his WhatsApp message and was pleasantly surprised. I congratulated him and then at noon we spoke via Zoom.”

The 16-year-old Grandmaster from Chennai is only the third Indian to beat the Norwegian after Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna. But as luck would have it, his coach Grandmaster RB Ramesh missed the match. While being far away from him, the coach said that they manage their schedule via Zoom call.

While giving details about the youngster’s schedule, Ramesh said that he goes to bed at 4am and wakes up at 11 and post a bath and having breakfast, they meet on Zoom call to discuss strategies for that particular day’s opponents. “Because of the different time zones, he has had to change his schedule,” he added.

Ramesh has been training the champion in making since the latter was seven and a half years and is well versed with what is his wards chess language. After beating Carlsen, the 16-year-old said that he is delighted with the victory and it has given him a lot of confidence for the tournament ahead.