Indian Chess is on a rapid rise and another Indian has bagged the limelight as he stunned World No.1 Magnus Carlsen much recently. The reigning World Champion lost in the classical chess format to a 24-year old Indian Grandmaster in the seventh round of the ongoing Qatar Masters.
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The Indian who delivered the blow to the World No.1 Magnus Carlsen is Karthikeyan Murali. Hailing from Tamil Nadu, the youngster skillfully wielded the black pieces to get the better of Carlsen.
With the win, he became only the third Indian after Vishwanathan Anand and Harikrishna to defeat Carlsen in the classical chess format.
The victory also helped Murali score 5.5 out of 7 in the ongoing tournament. He thereby joined the leaders that includes India’s SL Narayan and Arjun Erigaisi.
Harikrishna achieved the feat way back in 2005 when Carlsen was just 14 years old. However since Carlsen became the World No.1, Vishwanathan Anand managed to beat him. It was at the 2022 Norway Chess tournament in Classical section.
Who is Karthikeyan Murali?
Karthikeyan Murali is a two-time National Champion and hails from Thanjavur. He is ranked 163rd in the FIDE rankings at the moment.
It was the first time that he faced Magnus Carlsen in his career. Speaking after the win, he said, “It was very exciting playing Magnus for the first time. My aim was to just complicate the matters. We all know Magnus likes to grind so I thought I’ll complicate the position and go from there,” he said after his win.
“It was equal. I think he had many chances to go for equality. But I had very less time and he wanted to play for more and it backfired,” added Karthikeyan Murali.
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