9-year-old Indian chess prodigy shocks Magnus Carlsen with a draw in online tournament

In one of the most stunning moments in chess in recent times, 9-year-old Aarit Kapil from Delhi came very close to defeating current world No. 1 and five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen in an online chess tournament. The match was part of an event called the 'Early Titled Tuesday,' which was hosted on Chess.com.

9-year-old Indian shocks Carlsen

Aarit surprised everyone by putting Carlsen in serious trouble in their blitz game. At one point, the Indian prodigy had a completely winning position against the Norwegian legend. However, with only a few seconds left on his clock, Aarit couldn’t convert his advantage into a win. The game eventually ended in a draw.

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What makes this even more impressive is that Aarit was playing the event from a hotel room in Georgia, where he is currently competing in the Under-10 World Chess Championship. He has already won both his games in the first two rounds of the tournament and will play his third game on Wednesday.

Carlsen had recently said that there is no one in the world right now who looks good to succeed him as the next best thing in chess, not even the current world champion D Gukesh. Carlsen's comment came after he won the Norway Chess 2025 against some of the best players in the world, including Gukesh and Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi.

During the classical tournament in Norway, Carlsen lost a match against Gukesh despite being ahead for most of the time in the game. However, the 34-year-old made a brilliant comeback from that loss and went on to win the event, finishing ahead of American GM Fabiano Caruana and India's Gukesh.

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Carlsen will next be seen in action in the Las Vegas leg of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam tournament, which is set to take place from 16 to 20 July.

Las Vegas Freestyle Chess lineup: Magnus Carlsen, Hans Niemann, Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, Levon Aronian, Wesley So, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Leinier Dominguez, Parham Maghsoodloo, Vincent Keymer, Ian Nepomniachtchi, R Praggnanandhaa, Javokhir Sindarov, and Vidit Gujrathi.