Meet Aarit Kapil, India's nine-year-old chess sensation who nearly defeated Magnus Carlsen

India’s nine-year-old Aarit Kapil made headlines on Tuesday after he nearly defeated world No.1 chess player Magnus Carlsen in an online blitz game during the Early Titled Tuesday competition on Chess.com. Aarit Kapil, who hails from Delhi, had a much superior position against highest rated chess player of all time, Carlsen, before time constraint forced him to settle for a draw after 49 moves.

Aarit Kapil currently holds the title of Candidate Master, which is awarded by FIDE to chess players who have a classical rating of 2200 or have performed well at continental or national events. Aarit Kapil currently has a classical FIDE rating of 2078.

Five-time world champion Carlsen has a classical rating of 2837 and holds the record for the highest rating of all time (2882).

Who is Aarit Kapil, who drew against Magnus Carlsen?

Aarit Kapil hails from New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar and studies at the Somerville School. He started playing chess four years ago and now trains five to six hours daily under the coaching of International Master Vishal Sareen.

In 2024, Aarit became the youngest Indian and third youngest in the world to defeat a Grandmaster in a classical Chess match. He achieved this feat by beating Raset Ziatdinov of the USA at the KIIT International Open in Bhubaneswar.

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Aarit’s father, Vijay, who works as a mutual fund distributor in Delhi, told the Indian Express that his son was taught chess by his elder sister and he mastered it in no time.

“He was five years old when his elder sister Aarna taught him chess. In one week, he was beating us. Not like I am a serious player - I am the equivalent of a bathroom singer in the sport: a casual player. But we saw his potential, so we got him working with a coach. And in a few days, he won an international online tournament,” Vijay said.

“Sometimes when he has a bad tournament, we jokingly tell him ’tera chess rukwadenge’ (We’ll stop your chess). He says, ‘jo marzi karlo, chess nahi chhodunga’ (Do whatever you can, I won’t stop playing chess),” he added.

“Bas chess hi karta hai. Aur kuch nahi karta. (only chess, nothing else).”

The most amazing fact about Aarit’s draw against Carlsen was that he played the match from a hotel room in Georgia, where he is currently competing in the Under-10 World Chess Championship.

The Titled Tuesday tournament is only open to players with FIDE titles, including Grandmaster, International Master, FIDE Master and Candidate Master.