Chess: 16-year-old Indian beats World No.1 Carlsen

R Praggnanandhaa, the 16-year-old Indian Grandmaster defeated World's No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the online rapid chess tournament Airthings Masters, PTI reported.

Praggnanandhaa won the game in 39 moves with black pieces in the Tarrasch variation of the game. He reached the joint 12th spot after eight rounds with eight points.

Earlier, he only had one victory, while two draws and four losses. His win was against Lev Aronin, picked draw against Anish Giri and Quang Liem Le and lost against Eric Hansen, Ding Liren, Jan-Kryzstof Duda and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov.

Meanwhile, Russia's Ian Nepomnachtchi is at the top of the tournament with 19 points, while Ding Liren and Hansen follow with 15 points each. Ian Nepomnachtchi had lost to Magnus Carlsen months ago.

The Airthing Masters is a 16-player online rapid chess tournament. A player scores three points for a win and 1 for a draw in the preliminary round. There are seven more rounds left in the tournament.

Meanwhile, India's fourteen-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam from Chennai became the 73rd Grandmaster from the country on Sunday. Bharath secured his final GM norm at an event in Italy. He amassed 6.5 points from nine rounds and won the requisite 2,500 (Elo) mark, and finished seventh in the event. Indian player Lalith Babu won the tournament.