New York

Indian teenager Donnarumma Gukesh made chess history in the Aimchess Rapid on Sunday evening as he became the youngest player ever to beat Norway's Magnus Carlsen as world champion.

The 16-year-old's win was Carlsen's second loss in two days against one of India's new crop of talented teenagers in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Carlsen went down on Saturday to 19-year-old Arjun Erigaisi.

"What a monumental day in history," International Master Jovanka Houska said. "It was just an incredible, incredible performance by Gukesh."

The key moment in the Round 9 game was after Gukesh put Carlsen's queen in peril.

Carlsen, playing from a log cabin in northern Sweden, spent five minutes thinking about his next move. A few moves later, he resigned.

Gukesh is 16 years, 4 months and 20 days old, while the previous record before Gukesh's win was R Praggnanandhaa's 39-move victory over Carlsen in the Airthings Masters in February. Pragg, who is not playing in this event, was 16 years, 6 months and 10 days old then.

Despite the win, Gukesh wasn't impressed with his own play. "Obviously, beating Magnus is always special but I was not really very proud of that game," he said. However, he did crack a smile when told he was the youngest player to beat Carlsen as world champion.

The award-winning Meltwater Champions Chess Tour, the world's leading year-round chess circuit, reaches its penultimate tournament with the Aimchess Rapid. The event features 16 players in a round-robin prelim stage before the field is cut to eight and knockouts begin.

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The Aimchess Rapid is the last "Regular" tournament of the 2022 season with a prize pot of USD150,000 before the end-of-season final event starts on November 14.