Gridlove

A Legendary Defeat

By Ishaan Khurana, Class: Year 5, Waitara Public School, Australia

His hard work has finally paid off! Norwegian World No.1, Magnus Carlsen, has been defeated by a sixteen-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa from India in chess. The match happened on a zoom call for the Airthings Masters Rapid Chess Tournament quarter-finals. Praggnanandhaa is now in the elite league of 5-youngest Chess Grandmasters in the world. Aggressive from the start, he pushed Carlsen onto the back foot but missed a glorious chance to kill the game in the middle stage. But the Indian chess prodigy bounced back, piling relentless pressure on Carlsen, who cracked and blundered.

Praggnanandhaa orchestrated his victory over Carlsen in 39 moves. One particular moved changed the whole game and the commentators were left in awe. The knigh moved, and Praggnanandhaa got an advantae that he quickly accepted. The next move, Bishop to C2, was when Magnus got destroyed. 

I wish the talented Praggnanandhaa the very best for his future endeavours,”

-Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi (Via Twitter).

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa did not win most of the games in the tournament, so Magnus qualified to go ahead, and Praggnanandhaa did not. Do you know how the moves in a chess game or recorded or noted? 

  • Chess notation uses abbreviations for each piece, using capitalized letters: King = K, Queen = Q, Bishop = B, Knight = N, Rook = R, Pawn = no notation.
  • Capturing an enemy piece sees an “x” placed between the piece moved and the square the captured piece was upon.
  • When the opponent’s king is threatened by check, a “+” sign is added to the end of the notation.
  • Castling kingside is written as “0-0”. Castling queenside is notated with “0-0-0”.

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We publish The The Pink Buzz fortnightly. Copies are delivered Digitally or by Registered Courier or Post.