He was born in the cradle of chess, India, just 16 years ago.
The young international grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, already nicknamed “
Pragg
” by the big arms of the 64 cases who fear his combinations, has just beaten Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces during the Airthings Masters, one of the most prestigious rapid tournaments online.
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This victory acquired in a queen's gambit Tarrasch variant in just 39 moves makes him the youngest player to have taken a game from the Norwegian star, now aged 31.
The performance of “
Pragg
” was highly noticed in the chess world.
Coming from the Indian nursery composed of no less than five little aces of the chess board (Gukesh, Sadhwani, Sarin, Erigaisi, and of course Praggnanandhaa), the little Indian pearl which was born on August 10, 2005 in Chennai certainly has for ambition to succeed Viswanathan Anand, whom more than a billion Indians consider a living god, nicknamed in his heyday the Lucky Luke of chess because he calculated at lightning speed.
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The revolution of “
online
” tournaments
It is certainly no coincidence that the feat of "
Pragg
" took place during an online tournament.
This practice has developed considerably over the past two years with the appearance of the covid epidemic which has prohibited, confinement requires, the holding of classic tournaments.
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Chess on the Internet is a revolution
"
The Indian prodigy therefore managed to bring Carlsen's king to bed (and by the way also that of the talented Armenian Levon Aronian) during the qualification phase of the Airthings Masters tournament which starts this year the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour created in 2020 by the champion of the world in person.
This international circuit, endowed with almost 2 million dollars, is made up of six tournaments with sixteen players (the Regulars), three tournaments with twelve players plus possibly guests (the Majors) and a final between the first ten players.
The winners of the
Majors
will be directly qualified for a grand final which will be played in San Francisco in September.
Live, Carlsen's wry reaction when he realizes he's lost to 'Pragg'
In this game played at the rate of 15 minutes + 10 seconds per move, the advantage will often change sides until the decisive fault of Carlsen.
She allows “
Pragg
” to finish with a well-rounded attack on the lonely white king.
Carlsen - Praggnanandhaa Airthings, Masters online 2022
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. Nc3 c5 5. e3 Nc6 6. cxd5 exd5 7. Bb5 cxd4 8. exd4 Bd6 9. OO OO 10. h3 h6 11. Re1 Bf5 12. Ne5 Rc8 13. Bf4 Re8 14. Rc1 Qb6 15. Bxc6 bxc6 16. Na4 Qa6 17. re3 Ne4 18. f3 Ng5 19. Tec3 Qb7 20. Bh2 Ne6 21. Bxc6 Nf4 22. Ne5 Bxe5 23. dxe5 Nd3 24. Rxc8 Rxc8 25. Rxc8+ Qd3 26. Bg3 d4 27. b3 Qc6 28. Qd2 Kh7 29. Kh2 Bg6 30. Qa5 Qc1 31. Qxa7 Qe3 32. Nc3 Nf4 33. Nd1 Qd2 34. Nf2 Ne2 35. h4 Qe1 36. Qd7 Nxg3 37. Qxd4 Nf1+ 38. Rh3 Ne3 39. Qb2 Bc2 White resigns