Why chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa had an unfair advantage in his Class 12 English exam

R Praggnanandhaa, 17, is an Indian chess grandmaster

In a Class 12 English language exam question asking students to describe the 44th Chess Olympiad which was held in India last year, R Praggnanandhaa had a bit of an advantage over his classmates – the Indian chess prodigy was actually a medal-winner in the tournament.

Praggnanandhaa, a student of Velammal school in Chennai, shared a picture of his English exam question paper, wherein students were asked to write a letter describing the 44th Chess Olympiad which took place in Mamallapuram, Tamil Nadu.

Praggnanandhaa, 17, was part of the bronze medal-winning team at the Chess Olympiad, along with D Gukesh, Nihal Sarin and Raunak Sadhwani in the Open section. He also won an individual bronze medal for India.

Gave my 12th exams, English paper today.. and was happy to see this question appear! pic.twitter.com/gdVxlvuCpQ

— Praggnanandhaa (@rpragchess) June 20, 2023

The Indian grandmaster shared a picture of the question paper on Twitter, saying he was happy to see the question. “Gave my 12th exams, English paper today.. and was happy to see this question appear!” he tweeted.

His picture shows that students had the option of either writing a letter describing the 44th Chess Olympiad or responding to a given job ad with a biodata. No points for guessing which question Praggnanandhaa attempted.

His tweet got a response from another grandmaster – Anish Giri of Netherlands. Giri’s attention was drawn to another part of the exam – the 28-year-old was left puzzled by a question asking students to find a mistake in the sentence “My teacher told me that my answer is wrong.”

This is indeed wonderful. But I don't see the mistake in "My teacher told me that my answer is wrong." — Anish Giri (@anishgiri) June 21, 2023

“That’s unfair to other students,” joked another Twitter user.

That's unfair to other students

— nishant (@knave4cs) June 20, 2023

“You had a checkmate moment,” another quipped.

The international Chess Olympiad, organised by the Federation Internationale des Echecs (FIDE), took place in Mamallapuram in August 2022. Mamallapuram’s well-connected transport network and the presence of several luxury hotels all helped in the selection of the coastal town as the venue for the international chess tournament.