5 min readApr 8, 2026 10:37 PM IST
On a day when the attention of Indian chess fans was fixated on Cyprus to see the fate of the three Indians in action at the twin Candidates tournaments, Aarit Kapil, a 10-year-old boy from New Delhi’s Mayur Vihar, was causing rumbles on the chessboard at the Menorca International Chess Open. Aarit, who had shot into limelight in June last year as a nine-year-old for almost defeating Magnus Carlsen in an online blitz game, defeated Kazakh grandmaster Kazybek Nogerbek in an over-the-board classical game on Wednesday on the Spanish island.
Unlike many other tales of young up-and-comers taking down grandmasters who are past their prime, in this case, Aarit took down a grandmaster whose star is on the rise. Nogerbek was crowned the World Junior Champion in 2024 (the same edition where Divya Deshmukh became a Women’s World Junior Champion). Playing with white pieces, Aarit defied a rating deficit of 233 points to beat the Kazakh GM, who is two rungs above the FIDE Master title which Aarit currently holds.
Aarit is playing in the A group of the Open section of an event where some of India’s top stars like world champion Gukesh D, Nihal Sarin, Pentala Harikrishna are playing in the Masters section. The open section of the Menorca Chess event also features some of the top players from India, like Leon Luke Mendonca, Pranav Anand and Sankalp Gupta.
Aarit Kapil prepares in his hotel room for an upcoming game. (Special arrangement)
Vijay, Aarit’s father, says Nogerbek was so upset at losing to a 10-year-old that he slammed his pen on the table after signing the scoresheets. But rather than getting rattled by the incident, Aarit was chuffed at what he had managed to pull off.
“Mujhe toh bohot mazaa aaya (I had a lot of fun),” declares the 10-year-old, swagger in his voice apparent, when he talks about defeating the third grandmaster of his fledgling career. “Maine pehle bhi GMs ko hara rakha hai jab main nau saal ka tha (I defeated my first grandmaster at the age of nine).”
He admits that he was in some trouble initially after just four moves when Nogerbek pulled out a tactic on move 4 that he was not quite acclimatized to. For a boy whose strength on the chessboard is speed, Aarit slowed down, spending 20 minutes on his fourth move trying to untangle the opponent’s prep. Eventually, by move 32, he found himself in a position where he had a pawn more on the board, which he started to convert into a handy advantage by move 40.
“One of the things about Aarit is that he has incredible self-confidence once he gets into positions of advantage. Other players, when they get into winning positions, can get nervous with thoughts like ‘I hope I don’t mess this up.’ That’s quite common. Also common is being intimidated by a stronger opponent. But not Aarit. He tends to be very confident in those situations. If he knows that he’s on top, he has the confidence to pull it off,” Aarit’s coach Srinath Narayanan tells The Indian Express.
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Talking about the other special qualities of the 10-year-old, Srinath, who is known for his role in shaping prodigies like Arjun Erigaisi and Nihal Sarin into world beaters, says: “He has incredible speed. He has such a curiosity for chess that he can play the sport for the whole day and not get bored with it. He can learn concepts quickly and implement them.”
The tournament in Menorca is his fifth event in the past one-and-a-half months: he’s played three tournaments in Budapest before travelling to Grenke Open and then to Menorca. At one of the tournaments, he missed an International Master norm by just half a point. Aarit’s father tells The Indian Express that after this tournament ends they will return to India where their first priority will be to find sponsors to fund future forays into tournaments so that the youngster can slay more grandmasters.
Besides that near-victory over Carlsen last year and the win over Nogerbek at Menorca, Aarit has also defeated two more GMs: Raset Ziatdinov and Vishakh NR. “This is a significant result. It confirms that he’s a special talent. But considering his ability I’m not really surprised,” says Srinath.
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