Magnus Carlsen: Indian teenager Donnarumma Gukesh becomes the youngest player ever to beat him as world champion

CNN
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Indian teenager Donnarumma Gukesh has become the youngest player ever to defeat Magnus Carlsen since the Norwegian became world champion almost a decade ago.

Aged 16 years, four months and 20 days old, Gukesh broke the previous record held by his compatriot Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa who defeated the world champion in February when he was 16 years six months and 10 days old.

“Obviously, beating Magnus is always special but I was not really very proud of that game,” Gukesh said in a press release after beating Carlsen at the Aimchess Rapid on Sunday,

Carlsen had seemed in control, two pawns up after the opening, until he made a key mistake on his 25th move that endangered his queen.

“I was really disappointed because I’d seen an easy way to win, but I thought I’d seen something even easier, but I hadn’t seen his threat of trapping the queen in the middle of the board,” Carlsen said, according to Chess24.com.

As he realized the double threat to his king and queen, Carlsen spent almost seven minutes pondering his options on his next move, visibly frustrated with himself.

He continued to play, spinning on his chair and shaking his head, but could not undo the damage and resigned shortly afterwards.

It was Carlsen’s second defeat in two days to one of India’s teenage grandmasters at the Aimchess Rapid, after he lost to 19-year-old Arjun Erigaisi.

On the tournament’s first day, the Norwegian star almost suffered another defeat to another 16-year-old from India – Aditya Mittal – but survived the two most dangerous moments to scrape a draw.

“Pragg is the only one I’ve lost multiple times to. As for Arjun and Gukesh: Arjun I’ve generally beaten; Gukesh very similar,” Carlsen said afterwards in a press release.

“I think Gukesh has been extremely impressive in classical chess recently. Perhaps this rapid win wasn’t his proudest effort, even though getting a win is always nice.”

Carlsen, who began the tournament chasing his fifth win on the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour this year, also suffered a shock defeat to 18-year-old Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan.