Being the second Indian player, after Viswanathan Anand, and the youngest, to compete in the FIDE World Cup final, Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa authored a significant chapter in the history of Indian chess. The 18-year-old Indian was defeated by world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the final match on Thursday. In this article Let us read R Praggnanandhaa’s Journey To the FIDE World Cup Final.
About R Praggnanandhaa
Grandmaster of chess Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa was born in India on August 10, 2005. He was a chess prodigy who, at the age of 10, became the youngest international master ever. At the age of 12, he became the second-youngest grandmaster ever when he defeated Magnus Carlsen in a quick game at the Airthings Masters Rapid Chess Tournament on February 22, 2022. Praggnanandha was just 16 when he set a record that was later surpassed by Gukesh D on October 16, 2022.
R Praggnanandhaa’s Journey To FIDE World Cup Final: Chess career
2013’s World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 champion Praggnanandhaa earned the FIDE Master title. In 2015, he was the under-10 champion. In 2016, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history. He finished fourth with 8 points in the World Junior Chess Championship in November 2017, when he earned his first grandmaster norm. On April 17, 2018, he earned his second norm in the Heraklion Fischer Memorial GM norm competition in Greece.
On June 23, 2018, at the Gredine Open in Urtiji, Italy, he earned his third and final norm by defeating Luca Moroni in the eighth round to become the second-youngest grandmaster in history. At that time, Sergey Karjakin was the youngest, at 12 years and 7 months. He is the fifth-youngest Grandmaster (GM) to have ever attained the rank, trailing only Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D, and Javokhir Sindarov.
As the 90th seed, Praggnanandhaa participated in the 2021 Chess World Cup. In round 2, he defeated GM Gabriel Sargissian 2-0. he overcame GM Micha Krasenkow in the quick tiebreaks to proceed to round 4. In the fourth round, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeated him.
With victories over Andrey Esipenko, Vidit Gujrathi, and Nils Grandelius, Praggnanandhaa competed in the Masters division of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022 and placed 12th overall with a final score of 512.
On February 20, 2022, he became the third Indian player (after Anand and Harikrishna) to defeat World Champion Magnus Carlsen in any time format in the online Airthings Masters quick event of the Champions Chess Tour 2022, with a 15+10 time control. He won again, his second victory against Carlsen in three months, at the Chessable Masters online fast chess competition in May 2022, and went on to the finals.
In the FTX Crypto Cup 2022, he also defeated Carlsen three times and came in second to Carlsen in the overall rankings.
Praggnanandhaa participated in the Tata Steel Chess Masters 2023 in January 2023. For the first time in a classical game, he defeated grandmaster Ding Liren, who has a rating of 2800. He finished the competition in ninth place with a 6/13 score.
Praggnanandhaa was invited to the Magistral de León Masters in Spain. The invitation was for a four-game quick match versus Wesley So in 2018. In game one, he beat So; after three games, the score was tied at 112–112. So beat Praggnanandhaa in the final game, winning the contest 212–112.
In the Charlotte Chess Center’s Winter 2018 GM Norm Invitational, which was held in Charlotte, North Carolina, in January 2018, Praggnanandhaa tied for third place with GM Alder Escobar Forero and IM Denys Shmelov with a score of 5.0/9.
Praggnanandhaa won the Xtracon Chess Open in Denmark in July 2019. He won the Under-18 division of the World Youth Championships on October 12, 2019. Praggnanandhaa scored a score of 9/11. He attained a rating of 2600 in December 2019, making him the second-youngest individual to do so. He was only 14 years, 3 months, and 24 days when he won the title.
Praggnanandhaa won the Polgar Challenge in April 2021. It was the first of four legs of the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour is a quick online tournament for young players. The tournament is put on by the Julius Baer Group and Chess24.com. He received a score of 15.5/19, 1.5 points higher than the next-best contestant. With a score of 7/15 (+4-5=6), which included victories over Teimour Radjabov, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Sergey Karjakin, and Johan-Sebastian Christiansen, as well as a draw against World Champion Magnus Carlsen. He finished in 10th place at the following Meltwater Champions Chess Tour on April 24, 2021.
R Praggnanandhaa’s Journey To FIDE World Cup Final
PTI has examined R Praggnanandhaa’s participation in the top competition:
*Won a bye in the opening round.
*In the second round, he defeated French Grandmaster Maxime Lagarde 1.5-0.5.
*In the third round, defeat veteran Czech GM David Navara 1.5-0.5.
*Conquer globe No. 2 in American Hikaru Nakamura Round four score: 3-1.
*Defeated Ferenc Berkes of Hungary 1.5 to 0.5 in the fifth round.
*In the sixth round, he had a come-from-behind 5-4 victory over fellow countryman Arjun Erigaisi.
*Beat third-placed Italian-American Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in the semifinal with a score of 3.5 to 2.5 to advance as the World Cup’s youngest player.
After 35 moves, Tuesday’s Game 1 of the Final concluded in a tie.
In just 30 moves, game 2 between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen also concluded in a tie.
*Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen came back to the table on Thursday to compete in the games with shorter time controls. The Indians lost in the tiebreak.
