R Praggnanandhaa beats D Gukesh at Tata Steel Chess Masters, big win reaffirms India’s stature as Chess powerhouse

The global newsmakers in chess last year were D Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi. The youngest-ever world champion and the highest-ranked Indian in the world, in that order, these two had played stellar roles in the country’s historic gold medal at the Chess Olympiad.

Buried under their exploits was R Praggnanandhaa, the first player from the new generation who had announced to the world the immense potential of the Indian youngsters. Few remembered that he had achieved a career-high world ranking of eight last July. He bounced back in the limelight with a stunning win over Gukesh in a tie-breaker for the top spot in the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk Aan Zee in the Netherlands on a manic Sunday.

This was the first elite event of the year. Five of the 14 participants were from the top 10 in the world. Ranked 14th, Pragg won six, drew five and lost two games, including one against Germany’s Vincent Keymer in the last round. That game lasted nearly seven hours. Gukesh having suffered his first defeat as world champion — against Arjun earlier — the overnight joint-leaders finished atop the table with 8.5 points each.

In the tie-breaker between two Chennai players played in the blitz format, Pragg was the underdog because of exhaustion. It had been a long day and he was coming off a defeat. He lost the first game with black and it seemed all over. Somehow, the 18-year-old summoned some energy to win the next two games with white. Gukesh sank in his chair after realising that he had blundered.