 "'Top players are not invincible': Praggnanandhaa on what went through his mind while beating Carlsen for the first time")
Indian chess star Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has shared the story of how he beat Magnus Carlsen for the first time, and how the win gave him a big boost in confidence. Speaking on YouTuber Raj Shamani’s podcast, the 20-year-old said he was not expecting the win and that the moment came suddenly during an online rapid game in 2022.
R Praggnanandhaa first defeated Magnus Carlsen as a 16-year-old in a rapid game at the Champions Chess Tour in 2022. His maiden classical victory against the World No. 1 came at Norway Chess 2024. He recently beat the five-time world champion twice in three days at the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess event in July.
“I wasn’t thinking anything. I was just playing and I got my chance out of nowhere and everything happened in like few minutes. It was a rapid game. So everything happened in few minutes then I realised… I was quite happy and it was online game,” the Indian GM said.
“At that time my parents were asleep. It was like 2:00 a.m. in the morning. I went and woke my dad up. I said, ‘I won.’ But then he went back to sleep because he had to go to the office tomorrow. He didn’t care at all. Yeah. He said good and went back to sleep,” he added.
“I was just excited… I wasn’t expecting it and then suddenly the game was also going in a trend that he was putting pressure on me and then suddenly I got my chance. I had to play some accurate moves which I did and I won. I also didn’t expect so much reaction from outside after that. I was more excited about the fact that I just beat Magnus than the actual game,” he said.
Praggnanandhaa says the victory showed him that top players aren’t invincible
Praggnanandhaa admitted the quality of the game wasn’t very high but said that it gave him a lot of confidence. He added that once you beat a top player, you realise they are not unbeatable.
“I didn’t think the game was particularly great or anything like that. I realised I didn’t really play well. It was like fifth game of the day or something and we were already tired and it was obvious that we were not playing our best,” he said.
“It gave me a lot of confidence and I realised that the top players are not invincible… you can beat them. Until you actually get that first win, you always feel like they are in a different world. But once you beat them, you know it’s possible,” he added.
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