R Praggnanandhaa is one third of the glorious young trio of Indian chess along with Gukesh D and Arjun Erigaisi. All are teenagers and have registered several major wins on the circuit. But now Pragg, as many call him, has moved one step forward.
On Monday, the 18-year-old reached the final of the FIDE Chess World Cup by stunning the world number 3, Fabiano Caruana 3.5-2.5 via a tie-break in the semis to set-up a summit clash against Magnus Carlsen of Norway.
The 18-year-old became the youngest player after the iconic Bobby Fischer and Carlsen himself, to qualify for the Candidates tournament.
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"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!," Praggnanandhaa said after booking a spot in the summit clash.
"It feels really good to qualify for the Candidates; I really wanted to fix this spot."
Praggnanandhaa’s resume is full of precocious achievements. At 10, he became an International Master (IM), the youngest to do so. At 12, he was a Grandmaster (GM).
The year 2020 halted Praggnanandhaa’s march. Covid arrived and the world ground to a halt. Online competitions enabled players to compete but there were limitations.
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“We lost one and a half year (to the pandemic),” Pragg’s coach RB Ramesh said in an interview. Ramesh was India’s 10th GM and has been training Praggnanandhaa since his early days in the sport.
“In that period, he got the experience of playing with all the top players in the world. He improved his chess strength overall. But the price we paid for that was playing in a lesser number of FIDE-rated tournaments.”
Despite the difficulties, Praggnanandhaa had wins over Carlsen in the online rapid format in February and May 2022.
Praggnanandhaa's wins over Carlsen in 2022 could prove vital for the youngster in the final of the Chess World Cup.
“He has played Magnus a lot of times. They’re both reasonably good friends also, Magnus has a soft corner for Pragg. He was the first of these prodigies to be doing well at the highest level. So Magnus has been noticing him since then," Ramesh said.
The origins of the name ‘Praggnanandhaa’ rest in the belief of his parents, Rameshbabu and Vaishali, in Kalki, the last avatar of Lord Vishnu according to mythology. Priests at the temple they visit suggested the name. And even though his parents don’t know exactly what it means, they went with it. Today, the entire chess world knows Praggnanandhaa.
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With tiebreaker wins over World No 3 Hikaru Nakamura and most recently Caruana, Praggnanandhaa's stock has risen and if he lands the Chess World Cup title, it could elevate him to the pantheon of India’s sporting greats.
