Chess | Beating Magnus Carlson! Pragnanandha revealed the ‘one-word’ response to her father after winning chess news
India’s Grandmaster R Praggananandha revealed his father’s shocking response when he surprised World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen for the first time in the 2022 tour of Champions Chess, at the age of 16.“Since it was 2 o’clock, My parents were sleeping. I went and woke up my father and said: ‘I won.’ He said, ‘good’, and then he went back to sleep as he had to go to the office the next day, “Pragganandha told about the podcast of Raj Shamani.Praggananandha first defeated Magnus Carlsen in the Champions Chess tour in 2022. His first classical victory over Norwegian came in Norway Chess 2024. In July 2025, he achieved a remarkable feat in the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess incident, which was beating Carlson twice.Talking about the game against Magnus, Kautuk said to the child: “I was not thinking anything. I was just playing and I got my chance from anywhere. Everything happened in a few minutes. It was an online rapid game. I was very happy.“I was excited just because I was not expecting it and then suddenly … I mean, the game was also going into a trend where he was pressurizing me, and then suddenly I got my chance.
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Do you think which victory was more important for Pragnanandha?
“I had to play some accurate tricks, which I did, and I won. I was just very happy and I didn’t expect such a response from outside. So, I also think, a good thing for the game. I think it attracted more attention,” Praggananda said.“I was more excited about the fact that I had defeated Magnus compared to the real game. I did not think the game was particularly great or anything like that. I later analyzed it.“I realized that I didn’t really play well. It was like the fifth game or something of the day. We were already tired and it was clear that we were not playing our best, but I won and I think it was important to me then.“This gave me a lot of confidence and I realized that the top players are not invincible – you can beat them. Until you really get this first win, you always feel that they are just in a different world. But once you defeat them, you know that it is possible.”
