The rise of Grandmaster R. Praggnanandhaa

R. Praggnanandhaa started playing chess when he was two years old, following in the footsteps of his sister R. Vaishali who later became a Grandmaster in 2018. (Photo via Twitter)

Less than a day after celebrating the successful landing of Chandrayaan-3 near the south pole of the moon, a large group of Indians returned to YouTube – not to ISRO’s channel but to FIDE’s. They tuned in to watch the wonder boy R. Praggnanandhaa, who had already created history by becoming the first Indian to reach the semi-finals of the Chess World Cup since it switched to single-elimination format. He had now become the youngest to reach the World Cup final. En route, he had beaten second-ranked Hikaru Nakamura and third-ranked Fabiano Caruana.

But now, a colossal challenge awaited him – for he was up against Magnus Carlsen, hailed by many as the greatest chess player of all time, a man who has held the top rank since the time Praggnanandhaa was five. Still, there was hope, for a year and a half ago, a 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa had become the youngest to defeat Carlsen – though compatriot Gukesh D. has since broken the record. Three months later, he beat Carlsen again.

The initial matches in the 2023 Chess World Cup final were both drawn, and it had come down to tiebreakers, where time was of importance. Praggnanandhaa began well. Subsequent analysis by chess.com suggested that after a centre-board pawn exchange, he held a slight advantage after the 17th move.

But as Praggnanandhaa took his time, the clock ticked, and Carlsen demonstrated why he was the best, responding in a flash almost every time. With less than half a minute to play (Carlsen had two and a half), Praggnanandhaa pushed the a-file pawn to a6.

An attempt to cause a diversion and make Carlsen think? Perhaps. It did not work, for Carlsen quickly reverted to his main line of attack, moving the knight to g5 and inflicting a check from h3, effectively sealing the game.

“He could have done a little better in the tiebreak,” his coach R.B. Ramesh told Scroll. “He was pushing for a win in the first half, and then something snapped and then his play deteriorated and lost quickly. That was quite painful. But being so young, he managed to cope well.”

Carlsen played safe in the second tiebreaker, enforcing a draw within 22 moves to win the World Cup. Despite losing the final, Pragg who turned 18 over the course of the tournament had come as far as anyone barring Anand, the doyen of Indian chess.

The journey for Pragg had begun when he was very young – though, given his age, it feels odd to say this. He was only 2 when he started playing!

R. Vaishali, daughter of Nagalakshmi and Rameshbabu, had won the Under-12s in 2012 and the Under-14s in 2015 at the World Youth Chess Championship. In 2018, Vaishali became a Woman Grandmaster.

Two-year-old Praggnanandhaa picked up chess while watching his four-year-old sister play. He was barely eight when they took him to his coach R.B. Ramesh, who reminisced to The Indian Express: “Praggnanandhaa, whom I had never met before, raised his hand and said that he wanted to learn everything I could teach.

“I’ve never heard an eight-year-old say something like that about chess. He wanted to know the next move and the next move after that before he would start practice.”

Inevitably, Praggnanandhaa followed in her sister’s footsteps with two World Youth Chess Championship titles – albeit at Under-8 and Under-10 levels. The latter was in 2015.

On May 29 the next year, he became the youngest International Master in the history of the game, under 10 years 10 months. The ascent came at breakneck pace: he won his three IM norms in February (Cannes), March (Moscow), and May (Bhubaneshwar).

The Moscow tournament demonstrated his ability to bounce back. He had gotten off to a wretched start, drawing one and losing two of his first three games before winning three and drawing one in the final four. The most famous of these wins came against Armenian Grandmaster Levon Babujian: Praggnanandhaa famously made him pay for a blunder in the 32nd move – king to g8.

The last, must-win match was against the Ukrainian Boris Kharchenko. Like Babujian, Kharchenko blundered too according to computers, capturing the c5 pawn with his. That was all Praggnanandhaa needed: a rook exchange and a bishop capture later, Kharchenko resigned against the boy who still used to be fascinated by Chhota Bheem, Mighty Raju, and Tom and Jerry.

Two years later, he became Grandmaster at the age of 12 years, 10 months, 13 days. At that point, only the Ukrainian Sergey Karjakin had done it at a younger age (Praggnanandhaa has since slipped to fifth place).

Most of that went largely under the radar in India outside the chess community. Perhaps it had to do with the perception that two people hunched over a small table focusing on a small board and pieces could offer little entertainment value as live-action sport.

But even they took notice that day in February 2022. Hours after defeating Levon Aronian – whose FIDE rating is the fourth highest in history – Praggnanandhaa was up against Carlsen. And Carlsen is known even beyond his sport.

The computer later identified Carlsen’s 32nd move (knight to c3) as a blunder. Seizing advantage, Praggnanandhaa unleashed a queen-and-knight attack, and Carlsen resigned after the 39th move.

Praggnanandhaa became – at that point – the youngest to defeat Carlsen. That record has been broken, but Praggnanandhaa beat Carlsen again, three months later. This time Carlsen resigned after 41 moves after a double attack on his king and knight.

Defeating Carlsen, not once but twice, is not something you do every day, especially if you are switching between school tests and chess tournaments.

A year after that, he finished runners-up at the World Cup, keeping India glued to the screens.

In the 1980s, 1990s, and 2000s, Anand had inspired generations to take up chess. The youngest of them – R. Praggnanandhaa, D. Gukesh, Harika Dronavalli, Arjun Erigaisi, Divya Deshmukh, Nihal Sarin, to name a few – have set out to establish India as a champion in the sport.

Barring the online edition of 2020 that they won, the best India have done at the Chess Olympiad is a bronze, at Tromsø 2014 and Chennai 2022. Generation Praggnanandhaa has given India reason to be optimistic.