Who is R Praggnanandhaa, the 18-year-old Indian chess prodigy?

India is becoming a hub of rising chess players and the one who is currently hitting headlines across the world is 18-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa. As reported earlier, the Indian prodigy on Monday defeated world number three Fabiano Caruana in the tiebreaks to reach the final of the ongoing FIDE World Cup in Baku, Azerbaijan, where he will meet world number one, Magnus Carlsen.

 

 

 

With this remarkable victory, Praggnanandhaa also became the first Indian to reach the finals of Chess World Cup in over two decades. Viswanathan Anand, one of the most popular names in Indian chess community, had won the first two World Cups back in 2000 and 2002.

 

 

He picked up chess as a hobby acquired from his sister, Vaishali Rameshbabu. This came as their parents - polio-afflicted bank employee father Rameshbabu and mother Nagalakshmi - were worried that Vaishali was spending too much time in front of the TV.

  

 

The motive behind introducing her to chess was to keep her away from her favourite cartoon shows. But who would have thought that it would end up inspiring a wizard of the sport at home as Praggnanandhaa's interest in Vaishali's new hobby became his life's calling!

 

Besides, it is important to note that Vaishali has won the U-14 and U-12 world youth championships. She added the Woman International Master's title to her CV in 2016. The brother-sister duo had won bronze medals in the individual events at the Chess Olympiad held last year in Chennai.

 

Amid financial constraints, his father has always supported him. Apart from him, his mother Nagalakshmi is the one who accompanies Praggnanandhaa to almost every tournament and he follows their games from home.

 

 

 

Praggnanandhaa became the talk of the town when he became the youngest International Master at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days. And two years later, Praggnanandhaa became the second-youngest Grandmaster in 2018, a record which was broken by fellow Indian D Gukesh in 2019.

 

Prior to that, Praggnanandhaa had won the World Youth Chess Championships Under-8 title in 2013, also making him a FIDE Master when he was just seven. He then won the Under-10 title in 2015.

 

 

 

He had also produced a sensational show against Carlsen last year, beating the Norwegian chess grandmaster three consecutive times in rapid and blitz.

 

In an interaction with Indian Express back in 2016, Praggnanandhaa's coach RB Ramesh had noted: “He has a fantastic memory, which lets him remember his old matches. He knows the mistakes he's made without being told. The way he analyses his games is way beyond his years.”

 

Praggnanandhaa religious side

Fun side of Praggnanandhaa!