Chennai based 18-year-old chess Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa is making headlines once again, after his stunning victory against Fabiano Caruana on Monday, August 21. Caruana is ranked as the third best player in the world. Praggnanandhaa who has also recorded his victory against Hikaru Nakamura, the second ranked player, will now battle it out with World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen at the FIDE World Cup 2023 between August 22 and 24, at Baku, Azerbaijan.
Speaking to TNM, Praggnanandhaa’s coach RB Ramesh said, “I am very happy with his achievement. He has become among the youngest in the world to reach where he has. Praggnanandhaa has already crossed the spot of world number 3 and 2. I hope he will now be able to end on a high note.”
Praggnanandhaa’s first coach Thiyagarajan recalls that, “Even when he was an under-10 player, he was playing at the level of a 15 or 16-year-old. Now he’s become a Grandmaster. The previous game he played against Carlsen was a 30-minute game. Today’s match will be a long game—four hours. I am absolutely certain that he will win.”
Further, with his win against Caruana, Praggnanandhaa has qualified to play in the Candidates event in 2024, making him the third youngest player to have qualified for the tournament. The winner of Candidates 2024 will be challenging Liren Ding, the reigning world chess champion. “It feels really good to qualify for the Candidates, I really wanted to fix this spot,” Praggnanandhaa told PTI earlier this week .
While speaking of his qualification to the finals, the youngster told PTI, “I didn’t expect to play Magnus in this tournament at all because the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn’t expect to be in the final. I will just try to give my best and see how it goes!” This will not be the first time that Praggnanandhaa is going up against Magnus Carlsen. Earlier in 2022, the youngster not only played against but also beat Carlsen in an online competition lasting 39 moves. Other Indian players who have also beaten Carlsen are Vishwanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna.
Praggnanandhaa rose to fame in 2016, at the age of 10, when he became the youngest International Master in the history of chess. At 12-years of age, the child-prodigy met all the requirements for earning the title of Grandmaster, after he recorded a win against Luca Moroni Jr in an aggressive game at the Gredine Open in Italy. He went on to become the youngest Indian to have earned the title of Grandmaster and only the second youngest to have recorded this achievement in the world. The same year, his elder sister R Vaishali went on to secure the title of a Woman Grandmaster. Both the siblings in 2022 went on to secure several medals for the country in the Chess Olympiad.
Senior sports journalist TN Raghu says credit must be given to Praggnanandhaa’s parents as well. “They’re one of the main reasons for his success. I had met them in 2012 when I was writing a profile on Praggnanandhaa’s sister. At the time the boy was studying in Class 2, very active for his age. The parents never put pressure on either of the siblings. Even later, while they struggled for funds for his training and for going for tournaments abroad, they did not put pressure. Often we see with your sportspersons that the parents are more eager for success than the children, but that was never the case here.” Raghu also emphasises that Praggnanandhaa’s first coach played an integral role in the young Grandmaster’s success.