16-year-old Indian GM Gukesh stuns Carlsen

Teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh stunned Magnus Carlsen in the ninth round of the preliminary phase of Aimchess Rapid online chess tournament, becoming the youngest to beat the world champion.

The 16-year-old from Chennai beat the world No.1 with white pieces early on Monday to move up to third position behind Polands Jan-Krzystof Duda (25 points) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 23 points) with 21 points after the 12th round.

Gukeshs 29-move dismantling of the world champion comes a day after his 19-year-old compatriot Arjun Erigaisi had posted a maiden win over the world champion.

“Gukesh just became the youngest player to ever beat Magnus after he became WC! Hats off to the 16-Year-Old Indian superstar,” Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, of which the Aimchess Rapid event is a part of, said on its Twitter feed.

Gukesh is 16 years 4 months 20 days and the previous record before his win was R Praggnanandhaas 39-move victory over Carlsen in the Airthings Masters in February. Pragg was 16 years 6 months and 10 days old when he defeated the world No.1.

The Indian was quoted as saying after the momentous win: “Beating Magnus is always special, but I was not very proud of that game.” “As a professional, I am happy with the way I played the game. The win surely plays a vital role in boosting my confidence and I look forward to further games,” Gukesh told

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by The Federal staff and is auto-published from a syndicated feed.)