John Saunders reports: one of the shocks of the fifth round of the 2017 Chess.com Isle of Man Masters, played at the Villa Marina on 27 September, was the defeat of 26-year-old English grandmaster David Howell, rated 2701, by the 12-year-old Indian prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, already an IM and rated 2500.
David Howell was himself a chess prodigy with many remarkable chess performances from the age of eight, and he is also a three-times British Champion. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is a remarkable talent and has already reached a rating of 2500, which is one of the qualifying factors for the grandmaster title. He still needs three grandmaster-level tournament norms to become a grandmaster, but should he achieve this in the next few months he will become the youngest grandmaster ever, a record that was held by such legendary figures as Bobby Fischer, Judit Polgar, Peter Leko and Sergey Karjakin.
Here is the score of the game:
David Howell (left) concentrates while Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa looks away during their game today.
