Jr world champ Pranav continues to defy the odds at Chess World Cup

“Pranav is buddy and buddy is Pranav.”

- Shahid Judge

In asingle post on social media from over two years ago, world No land five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen had announced to the world the growing threat of Pranav Venkatesh.

The teenager from Tamil Nadu, nicknamed ‘Buddy,’ had helped Carlsen stay in the race for the only hurdle he had not quite conquered at the time - winning a title at a team event.

Now 19, Pranav has simply grown from strength to strength. Last December, he won gold medals in the Under-I8 section of the World Youth Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship. In March, his stock continued to grow when he became the fourth Indian man to win the Junior World Chess Championship. And over the weekend in Goa, at a venue a few minutes away from Baga beach, Pranav continued to make waves and moved into the fourth round of the Chess World Cup. “World Junior Champion is one thing,” Pranav said to the media earlier in the tournament, ‘Tm aiming formuch higher stuff. In this World Cup, I want to do very well.”

So far, he has done exactly that.

Ranked world No.83, India’s 75th Grandmaster was not givena bye and had to play in the first round of the competition, But he started off with a straightforward 2-Owin over Eddine Ala Boulrens of Algeria—clinching each of the two classical format games.

There was a stumble in the sec-