This week, R. Pragyanananda was widely expected to rock the big leagues by surprising some of the big names in the elite field of AirThings Masters Online Rapid Chess Tournament.
As it turned out, this prodigiously talented 16-year-old stunned world No. 4 Levon Aronian and then created the biggest upset by bringing down world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, also with the black pieces. on Sunday.
In between, Pragyanandha drew with World No 9 Anish Giri losing to World No 7 Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.
strict customer
Scoring two wins and one draw against four of the world’s top-10 players, Pragyananand enthralled the chess world and focused on his abilities in the shorter format of the game. The performance, seen in the backdrop of three consecutive defeats by Pragnananda on Saturday, assumes greater significance. It aptly captures the remarkable toughness of Pragyanananda’s temperament and young mind.
Since a win leads to three points and a draw, Pragyananand jumped from a single point in the first four rounds to the next four to eight. The Chennai player improved his position overnight from 15th to 14th. However, she faces an uphill task of eliminating one of the eight quarterfinalists from the remaining seven rounds in a 16-player field.
Speaking of the day, when Carlsen resigned after the 39th move, Pragyanandana became the third Indian – Viswanathan Anand and P. Harikrishna the other two – to emerge victorious against the unremarkable Norwegian in tournament play.
In fact, after 21 moves, Pragyananand had a great chance to slam the door on Carlsen, but missed.
Carlsen isn’t known to give rivals a second chance, but on this day, with an aggressive play, Pragyanand managed to catch him on the wrong foot after 11 moves.
wrong move
Once on the 32nd move, Carlsen stumbled with a knight move. Pragyanand received a fatal reaction and a flawless sequence of Knight and Queen moves that shoved Carlsen to the side and eventually forced him to resign with Bishop-Block in time.
Even after Carlson resigned and left the board, it was surprising to see a calm and sober Pragyananda continue to study the final position without showing any emotion.
Prior to this incredible victory, Pragyanand dominated Aronian with white pieces from the 27th move during an 80-move victory and caught Giri in 38 moves.
Ian Nepomniachtchi continued to lead with 19 points out of 24, followed by Ding Liren and Erik Hansen at 15. Andrey Esipenko (14) is fourth and Carlsen is joint fifth with 13 points, with young Vincent Keimer.
Result (Including Pragyanananda):
Eighth Round: Magnus Carlsen (nor) R. lost to Pragyananand (8); Seventh Round: Drew with Anish Giri (Ned); Sixth Round: Shakhriyar lost to Mamedyarov (Aze); Fifth Round: Bt Levon Aronian (USA).
,