Meet Aarit Kapil, The 9-Year-Old Chess Prodigy Who Nearly Defeated Magnus Carlsen

News18

2 days ago

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Aarit Kapil on Tuesday came close to beating Magnus Carlsen in an online blitz game.
A nine-year-old Delhi boy has become the latest Indian chess sensation after pushing five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen to the brink during the Early Titled Tuesday competition. Aarit Kapil faced the world no. 1 Norwegian in an online blitz game and drew the game after 49 moves.
The Early Titled Tuesday competition is open to players with FIDE titles and featured the likes of Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Vladimir Kramnik.
Aarit, who lives in Mayur Vihar and studies in Vth standard, played the game from his hotel room in Georgia where he's currently taking part in FIDE World Cadets Cup (under-10 category).
The game format at Titled Tuesday allows each player three minutes at the start and an increment of a second per move. Aarit held an advantageous position till the 46th move but was running out of time with just seven seconds on the clock.
Carlsen had 20 seconds left himself and eventually the two agreed for a draw.
Aarit's Initiation Into Chess
Aarit was just five when his elder sister introduced him to chess. And he took to chess like a fish to water. 'He was five years old when his elder sister Aarna taught him chess. In one week, he was beating us," Aarit's father Vijay told The Indian Express. 'Not like I am a serious player – I am the equivalent of a bathroom singer in the sport: a casual player. But we saw his potential, so we got him working with a coach. And in a few days, he won an international online tournament."
Giving Carlsen a tough fight isn't the first notable feat of Aarit's career. In 2024, he defeated USA's Raset Ziatdinov to become the third youngest player in the world to beat a grandmaster.
'Sometimes when he has a bad tournament, we jokingly tell him ' tera chess rukwadenge (We'll stop your chess). He says, ' jo marzi karlo, chess nahi chhodunga ' (Do whatever you can, I won't stop playing chess)," Vijay said.
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