R. Praggnanandhaa, a 16 year old player from India made his dream come true by defeating World No 1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament.
From the word go, Pragg played an aggressive game and pushed Carlsen onto the back foot. He then missed a chance to win in the middle stage but managed to bounce back and put pressure on Carlsen who cracked and blundered. Pragg could not believe what he had done and he covered his mouth with his hands in total surprise at 2 a.m. in his home in Padi, a suburb in Chennai.
Pragg is the second youngest Grandmaster in the world and for him Magnus was an idol he looked upto. He is the third Indian after Viswanathan Anand and P.Harikrishna to accomplish the feat of defeating Magnus. He did it in 39 moves and that too with black pieces.
Pragg is considered to be a potential successor to Anand and takes credit for the chess boom in the country.
