Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi became the fourth Indian to stun Norwegian chess wizard Magnus Carlsen, in a Pro Chess League online match on February 21.
Playing for team Indian Yogis, Gujrathi made the most of a mistake committed by world number one Carlsen, who missed a checkmate late. Carlsen was playing for Canada Chessbrahs in the online tournament for teams from all over the world. The Pro Chess League features 16 teams playing rapid games and has a $150,000 prize fund.
With the victory over Carlsen, the 28-year-old Gujrathi has joined the likes of fellow Indian Grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. “It is an amazing feeling to defeat the GOAT (Greatest of All Time) of chess and I couldn’t have asked for a better moment,” Gujrathi said.
In the Pro Chess League match, the Indian team led by Gujrathi and Vaishali, Raunak and Aronyak won against Carslen, Aryan Tari, Razvan Preotu and Jennifer Yu to go into the final round with deficit of just one point. As per the format, the team that scores 8.5 first wins the game. The Yogis simply turned the tables by winning on all the four board with Gujrathi leading the pack on the top board.
