Praggnanandhaa Youngest Chess Player: Brought Laurels for India

Prof Shankar Chatterjee: Hyderabad

Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu was born on August 10, 2005, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He is also the first Indian to reach the World Cup final in 2023 since the knockout format was introduced in 2005. Praggnanandhaa has three world youth titles: U8 in 2013, U10 in 2015, and U18 in 2019. In 2019, the 13-year-old prodigy won the Xtracon Chess Open with an undefeated 8.5/10 points, overtaking a field featuring 13 Grand Masters ranked over 2600. In April 2021, he won the Polgar Challenge and qualified for the next leg of the Champions Chess Tour.

He won a bronze medal with the Indian team at the 2022 FIDE Olympiad, scoring 6.5/9 on the third board for a performance rating 2767. Later, in 2022, he won the Asian Continental Chess Championship. It is pertinent to mention that the International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( FEE-day Fédération Internationale des Échecs).

In July 2023, Praggnanandhaa obtained a live 2700 rating for the first time. Although he could not win the championship, his splendid performance amazed chess lovers worldwide. His amazing year continued with a second-place finish at the FIDE World Cup. As the 31st seed, he was the youngest player to ever reach the final. Only Grand Master (GM) Magnus Carlsen could stop Praggnanandhaa, who defeated Grand Masters Maxime Lagarde, David Navara, Hikaru Nakamura (who had been the second seed) Ferenc Berkes, Arjun Erigaisi, and finally Fabiano Caruana (the third seed) to reach the final. It is pertinent to mention that Magnus Carlsen defeated Praggnanandhaa in the tie-break, which indicates he fought with a great player with nails and teeth. I wish him more success, and my prayer to the almighty, he should reach the zenith. I wish to mention that inputs for this publication have been collected from