Praggnanandhaa - A Prodigy On The Rise

This year, he became the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the prestigious Tata Steel Chess Tournament. He's also surpassed the world champion D Gukesh, to become the top-ranked Indian chess player

- Ravi Raj

You must study your adversary if you hope to conquer them, but if your adversary is an unassuming, introverted 19-year-old Grandmaster from India, the first step may be the trickiest: articulate his name the way it should be. Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. There's a five-minute tutorial on YouTube about the correct pronunciation of his name. Yet, only a few get it right, without any stutters. His fellow competitors and commentators call him 'Pragg' because it's short and easy to pronounce. While this rechristening saved his opponents from the ordeals of mazing through the intricate web of syllables of Praggnanandhaa, they soon realised that mastering his name is nowhere as daunting as outsmarting him on the chessboard.

Praggnanandhaa is currently the top-ranked Indian in the FIDE classical rating, ahead of his compatriots Arjun Erigaisi and D Gukesh. This marks the first time in history that India has three players in the top six of the FIDE rankings, highlighting the strength of the Indian chess scene. "We just aim to play our best in each tournament. I connect well with Arjun, and our friendship goes beyond chess. We stay in touch even outside tournaments, always analysing the games and motivating each other," he says. Overall, only Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana rank above him, and they are all in their thirties. Yet he is quick to dismiss the scale of his accomplishments, for his eyes are already set on bigger things. "There is a difference of just three points between me and both Arjun and Gukesh. I am now training for my next classical tournaments, the Grand Swiss and the World Cup," says Praggnanandhaa, in an exclusive conversation with this publication.