India’s chess Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa once again showed his class as he beat world champion Magnus Carlsen on Monday at the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of the Champions Chess Tour, in Miami. The 17-year-old beat Carlsen for a third time in six months to stun the 31-year-old Norwegian. However, Praggnanandhaa could only take second place in the final standings since the Norwegian had a higher score based on previous games.
Nonetheless, defeating the world champion thrice in six months is an achievement in itself. There was a sense of disbelief on the face of Magnus Carlsen when Praggnanandhaa defeated him in the blitz tiebreak after the score was tied 2-2 at the end of the regulation game. The face-off had been nearing a draw. But after Praggnanandhaa’s 40th move, his opponent misplayed his knight.
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Notably, Praggnanandhaa was only 16 years of age when he beat the then world no 1 Magnus Carlsen for the first time. It was in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters, an online rapid chess tournament last February. The second time he stunned the Norwegian was at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament on May 20.
Coming to the Indian’s performance in the tournament, Praggnanandhaa had a great start as he started off with four consecutive wins, including a thumping 3-1 win over world No.6 Levon Aronian. The Indian prodigy had started his campaign with victory over Alireza Firouzja, he has then subsequently beaten Anish Giri and Hans Nieman.
Praggnanandhaa’s winning streak was broken by China’s Quang Liem Le in the fifth round. The 17-year-old suffered his second loss after he went down to Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda via the tie-break in the sixth round. The teen had told chess24 he needed to be sharper for the knockout stage. “I’m not so thrilled about my game quality,” Praggnanandhaa had said. "I’m missing some stuff, some tricks and some tactics.”