Praggnanandhaa's Historic wins over Aronian and Carlsen

"A Historic Comeback"

After losing 3 games and earning just a draw in the first day, Praggnanandhaa was under immense pressure, but completely shocked everyone with his amazing comeback on day 2! He defeated Current World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen in just 39 moves, defeating after a big blunder by Carlsen. He also defeated Levon Aronian who is in an exceptional form at the moment. He took his positives from day 2 by scoring 2.5/4 on day 3, and figures of 1.5/3 on day 4. This story of the 16 year old Grandmaster has amazed me. From having a score of 0.5/4 to defeating the current World Chess Champion, Magnus Carlsen, his story of not giving up after a horrendous first day. In this blog we will be covering his victories over Magnus Carlsen and Levon Aronian in the recently concluded Airthings Masters Preliminary 2022.

"A big blunder"(Magnus Carlsen vs Praggnanandhaa)

One of the greatest things about this victory was that Praggnanandhaa was playing with the black pieces. Indian cricket great Sachin Tendulkar and legendary Viswanathan Anand congratulated him after his victory over Carlsen. The game started in the Queen's Gambit Declined, both the players had an equal position till Magnus blundered on move 32, and it took Pragg 7 more moves to win the game as Magnus resigned after being down a bishop. The engines also gave Pragg a massive advantage after Carlsen's blunder.

"A well earned victory" (Levon Aronian vs Praggnanandhaa)

This game also started in Queen's Gambit Declined, but the engine always gave Praggnanandhaa the advantage and on move 44, he sacrificed his knight to get the rook and in a very tense queen and bishop vs queen and rook endgame Pragg succeeded after exchanging the queens on move 71 and Aronian resigned as Praggnanandhaa had a rook and an extra pawn against Aronian's bishop and pawn.

Conclusion

He also defeated Esipenko Andrey, Kosteniuk Alexandra, Vladislav Artemiev and ended a memorable tournament for him!
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Thank you!
"Beating Magnus gives confidence to any player and I am no different. Against a player of his caliber, you can never rest. I didn't want to let go of the advantage and was very happy that the result went in my favour. No special plan or preparation for the match. I just wanted to enjoy playing against him and not put too much pressure on myself."
-Praggnanandhaa after defeating Carlsen