Meet Aarit Kapil, nine-year-old from Delhi's Mayur Vihar, who almost beat Magnus Carlsen in an online blitz game

Indian Express

5 hours ago

Magnus Carlsen's Indian tormentors keep getting younger and younger. Weeks after the five-time world champion lost to 19-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju at the Norway Chess tournament, Aarit Kapil, a nine-year-old boy from New Delhi's Mayur Vihar, almost pulled off a win over one of the greatest players in the sport's history before settling for a draw due to time trouble.
The Standard V boy from Mayur Vihar's Somerville School — who started playing chess just four years ago — had a winning position in an online blitz game against the current world no.1 in the Early Titled Tuesday competition.
The Titled Tuesday tournament is organised twice every Tuesday by chess.com and is only open to players with FIDE titles (like Grandmaster, International Master, Candidate Master etc.) This particular Early Titled Tuesday event had elite GMs like Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik competing.
Aarit, a Candidate Master, was playing in the online event from his hotel room in Batumi, Georgia, where he is currently in the middle of playing an over-the-board FIDE World Cadets Cup (in the under-10 category).
For the Delhi boy, the draw with Carlsen is another step in what is turning out to be a fast rise: last December, he became the third-youngest player in the world to defeat a grandmaster in classical time control when he took down 66-year-old Raset Ziatdinov of the United States.
'He was five years old when his elder sister Aarna taught him chess. In one week, he was beating us. 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,' Aarit's father Vijay tells The Indian Express.
Unlike other Indian players, Aarit does not play too many international events. The family is on the lookout for sponsors to help him take the next steps in the sport. He spends five to six hours on the sport daily and is currently coached by IM Vishal Sareen.
Vijay and wife Nisha, who is in Batumi accompanying Aarit, were on a phone call on Tuesday when the boy came shouting 'draw kar diya, Carlsen ko draw kar diya' into the room. That's when the parents realised what their nine-year-old had done.
It could have been even better.
Until the 46th move, Aarit had a winning position against the Norwegian. But with his time running low, Aarit allowed Carlsen to salvage a draw on the 49th move, which was still commendable for his age and in a format where Carlsen is formidable.
What was even more remarkable was that Carlsen was playing with white pieces and had held a better position out of the opening. In Titled Tuesday, each player gets three minutes on the clock at the start and gets an increment of one second per move made. Carlsen's prep for the game was such that he had used up just seven seconds on his clock for his first 14 moves.
Despite the stature of the man playing against him, Aarit attacked from early on, throwing both bishops deep into Carlsen's territory, offering them up as trades. Aarit had one less pawn on the board after move 14. But by the 18th move, with some devil-may-care attacking chess, both of his knights were deep in Carlsen's territory threatening his king.
By the 25th move, the Indian boy held an advantage on the board. But on the clock, he was down to just 31 seconds while Carlsen had a minute and 25 seconds. By the 29th move, when both queens were traded, Aarit held a significant advantage on the board. But his time was down to 16 seconds, a challenge under any circumstances, but even more so against a player like Carlsen who relishes piling pressure on opponents to see them crack before defeating them.
In this case though, Carlsen was the one in trouble on the board, despite having more than a minute to work his way out of jail. By move 31, when Aarit's pawns on e and f files were primed to make a run to get promoted, with both of his rooks guarding them from behind, the engine showed that the Indian boy had a winning position.
Aarit held this advantage till the 46th move, when he was down to just seven seconds on the clock. But he had made Carlsen think, leaving the latter with just 20 seconds himself. Eventually, both players agreed to a draw after 49 moves.
It must be noted that Carlsen is currently on a vacation with wife Ella, but just how seriously he takes the Titled Tuesday event can be gauged by the fact that he ended third at the event, which featured 664 players.
Vijay, who works as a mutual fund distributor in the national capital, is hoping that the draw and the headlines it creates will lead to more sponsors showing an interest in his son's career.
'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),' laughs Vijay.
Ask Vijay what other interests the boy has and the father replies: 'Bas chess hi karta hai. Aur kuch nahi karta. (only chess, nothing else).'
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More