Checkmate And Chill! 15-Year-Old Indian Chess Prodigy Beats Magnus Carlsen, Goes Straight To Sleep

A 15-year-old chess prodigy stunned Magnus Carlsen in an online blitz game and didn't even bother to tell his parents. Vandan Alankar Sawai didn't inform anyone after he got past the world No. 1 and went straight to sleep with his father only finding out the result the next day.

Magnus Carlsen Beaten By 15 Year Old Indian Prodigy

In a major upset on August 18, Candidate Master Andan (FIDE Classical Rating 2,288) defeated Carlsen (FIDE Classical Rating 2823) in 50 moves during Chess.com's Titled Tuesday. While checking his Chess.com profile, his father discovered that his son had beaten the Chess legend. After defeating Carlsen, Vandan played two more rounds and ended the day with three wins and one defeat.

Vandan insisted he was shocked when Carlsen made the mistake and capitalised on it to grind out his biggest victory to date. Speaking to Rediff.com, Vandan said, “I didn't have anything to lose and everything to gain. I decided to play a comfortable game and opened with my usual pawn move, e4, while playing with the white pieces."

Later, his mother, Dr Madhuri Alankar Sawai, revealed that Vandan was reluctant to participate, but they were persistent about it. “Vandan was reluctant to participate in the event. We forced him to play.”

This is not the first time Carlsen was beaten by a chess prodigy. R Praggnanandhaa defeated the Norwegian GM in a rapid game at the Champions Chess Tour in 2022. Despite defeating Carlsen, Vandan is not sure whether to pick up chess as a career, as he opined that other teenagers have become GMs at this age.

He will be one to watch out for the future.