Teenage 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 Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda (25 points) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 23 points) with 21 points after the 12th round.

Gukesh’s 29-move dismantling of the world champion comes a day after his 19-yearold compatriot Arjun Erigaisi had posted a maiden win over the world champion.

“Gukesh just became the youngest player to 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, said on its Twitter feed.

Gukesh is 16 years 4 months 20 days and the previous record was R. Praggnanandhaa’s 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 win surely plays a vital role in boosting my confidence and I look forward to further games,” Gukesh said.

Asked if there was any special preparation for the match against Carlsen, the Indian GM said, “I had a discussion with my coach, Vishnu Prasanna, about the playing styles of all the players in the event. We made a brief plan about what to play against each participant as per their playing style.”

Subsequently, Gukesh suffered a setback in round 10 when he lost to Duda but bounced back superbly to beat Mamedyarova and Eric Hansen in the next two rounds.

Erigaisi has as many points (21) as Gukesh and is in fourth as the race for the spot in the knockout phase gets closer.

The 19-year-old Erigaisi began the third day of the preliminaries with a loss to Mamedyarov before scoring over Hansen and talented German Vincent Keymer. However, a defeat at the hands of fellow-Indian GM Aditya Mittal in the 12th round spoiled what would have been a good day.

World champion Carlsen is in fifth spot after having a quiet day. After losing to Gukesh, he drew against Harikrishna and world rapid champion Nodirkbek Abdusattorov and ended with a win over Daniel Naroditsky.

Praise from the icon

Chennai: India’s chess icon Viswanathan Anand feels young Indian players are on the right track. Teenage Grandmasters Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi have been enjoying a superb run in 2022 with wins over world champion Magnus Carlsen being the feathers in their caps.

Commenting on Gukesh’s stunning 29-move win over Carlsen in the preliminary section of the ongoing Aimchess Rapid online tournament, the five-time world champion said it showed that players like him and Erigaisi are very strong.

Viswanathan Anand. File picture

“I think it just shows that Arjun and Gukesh are very, very strong players... It is also nice that they play regularly against the best players because this is how you keep up,” Anand said on Monday.

A day before Gukesh, Erigaisi had defeated the world No.1. “With Gukesh, he is winning games, losing games, but he is very much in contention for qualification. It was a sharp battle. Gukesh played fearlessly as always… Magnus made one mistake, and Gukesh’s tactical accuracy is very, very high, and (he) immediately pounced on it,” Anand said.

PTI