Who Is Aarit Kapil? 9-year-old from Delhi who nearly defeated World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen, holds him to draw in online chess game
Indian chess has been seeing exponential growth, with three GMs within the top category of the current live rankings. First, Arjun Erigaisi is the current world No. 4, followed by reigning world champion D Gukesh in the fifth position and R Praggnanandhaa in the seventh position, and now it seems the nine-year-old is making history.
Kapil successfully put the Norwegian in a tight situation in their blitz clash and was in a winning position at one point, but surprisingly, with only a few seconds left on his clock, the chess prodigy was unsuccessful in converting his advantage, and the game came to a draw.
Credit: X | @ChessbaseIndia
Who is Aarit Kapil?
Aarit Kapil, a nine-year-old chess player and a fifth-standard student from Somerville School, started playing chess just four years ago.
According to ToI, the young chess player dedicates about five to six hours daily to the sport under the guidance if IM Vishal Sareen. He revealed his major achievement to his parents when he rushed into the room announcing, 'Draw kar diya, Carlsen ko draw kar diya.' (He forced a draw; he drew with Carlsen!)
The achievement adds to Aart's growing list of accomplishments, including becoming the third-youngest player in the world to defeat a grandmaster in a tight time control game when he achieved the victory against 66-year-old Raset Ziatdinov of the United States in December last year.
Aarit participated in the U-10 World chess
Aarit was reportedly playing the game from a hotel room in Georgia, where he participated in the U-10 World Chess Championship. The 9-year-old won both games in the first two rounds of the tournament.
Congratulations to 9-year-old Aarit Kapil from Delhi for his stunning performance against chess legend Magnus Carlsen, holding him to a draw in an online blitz game.
India's chess future looks incredibly bright. Wishing him great success ahead. pic.twitter.com/zODBRYmoaF — Kartik Sharma (@Kartiksharmamp) June 26, 2025
Recently, when asked about a possible successor, Carlsen broke his silence, saying plainly that there isn't anyone right now. That's the truth. Someone might emerge, but for now, it seems unlikely. He also spoke about Gukesh and remarked, 'I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he is on track; he is doing fantastic, but he's maybe not way ahead of track as we may have thought.'
Passing his verdict on Gukesh, he remarked, 'I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he is on track; he is doing fantastic, but he's maybe not way ahead of track as we may have thought.'
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