Magnus Carlsen, playing with black pieces, against an account that goes by Nayemhaque22, resigned after 50 moves in a Bullet Brawl game. (PHOTOS: Express Photo by Partha Paul and Screengrabs via Chess.com)
A FIDE Master from Bangladesh has claimed that his nine-year-old student defeated five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in an online chess tournament.
The incident happened in a Bullet Brawl game on Chess.com on Saturday. Magnus Carlsen, playing with black pieces against an account that goes by Nayemhaque22, resigned after 50 moves in a Bullet Brawl game (an event for titled players where there is a time control of one minute with no increments.)
The result meant that Magnus Carlsen’s rating dropped by -16.
Now, the man behind the account — FIDE Master Naim Haque — has told a Bangladeshi media outlet called The Business Standard that he had handed his account to his nine-year-old student Ryan Rashid Mugdha.
He also posted the result on social media, with a capitaion in Bangla that loosely translated into: : He (Ryan Rashid Mugdha) couldn’t play (in Bullet Brawn) because he doesn’t have a title. So I gave my Chess.com id. He played and beat 5-time world champion and current number 1 chess player in all three formats, Magnus Carlsen.”
It remains to be seen if the platform’s rules bar account holders from allowing other players to use their account. The rules state that to participate in the event, a player must be a part of the Chess.com Verified Titled Players club.
The Business Standard quoted Mugdha’s coach Naim as saying, “I teach Mugdha chess, and he always loves to play online. I let him use my ID, and later, he suddenly called me, saying he had beaten Carlsen. At first, I couldn’t believe it. Then he sent me screenshots and all the game details, and I was amazed.”
How Magnus Carlsen lost to a 9-year-old
While Carlsen himself has not commented on the incident, there is a very popular theory on why the world’s greatest player had allegedly lost to a nine-year-old who was using a FIDE Master’s account.
It appears that Magnus Carlsen experienced a mouse slip, that now-familiar faux pas on online chess. This is the only rational explanation for what Magnus Carlsen did on move 20: he pushed his queen into the path of the white bishop for no reason other than to have her killed (20.Qe6).
The ill-fated 20.Qe6 from Magnus Carlsen which led to his queen being picked off. (Photo Courtesy Chess.com)
Before Carlsen made the move, he held an overwhelming advantage on the board. When he made the move, the evaluation shot up in favour of the Nayemhaque22 handle.
Carlsen still battled on for 30 more moves, trying to get his pawn to promote into another queen. But eventually, he resigned.
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