- By Himanshu Badola
- Tue, 22 Aug 2023 07:12 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is on the verge of creating history as he reached the final of the FIDA World Cup by defeating World No 3 Fabiano Caruana in the semifinal.
The 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa has become the first Indian to reach the World Cup final since the knockout format was introduced in 2005.
Born in 2005 in Chennai to a bank manager, Praggnanandhaa first came in the limelight when he won the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013 and repeated the same in the under-10 category as well in 2015 that earned him the title of FIDE Master.
The younger sibling of Woman Grandmaster and International Master R Vaishali, the chess prodigy Praggnanandhaa soon went on to become an international master at the age of 10, the youngest at the time to do so, and a grandmaster at the age of 12, the second-youngest at the time to do so.
Praggnanandhaa had success touching his feet in every age category he performed and kept winning titles and hearts as well all around the world.
He became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10 years, 10 months, and 19 days in 2016 followed by achieving his first grandmaster norm at the World Junior Chess Championship in November 2017, finishing fourth with 8 points.
He is the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM), behind Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D, and Javokhir Sindarov.
Praggnanandhaa got the privilege to get invited to the Magistral de León Masters in Spain in 2018 for a four-game rapid match against Wesley So, defeating him by the score of 2½–1½.
He went on to clinch the Xtracon Chess Open in Denmark the next year, followed by a World Youth Championships victory in the Under-18 section that gave him a rating of 2600. He was the second-youngest person to achieve the feat, aging just 14 years, 3 months, and 24 days back then.
After defeating GM Gabriel Sargissian 2–0 in round 2 and GM Michał Krasenkow in the rapid tiebreaks in round 3, Praggnanandhaa was eliminated in round four by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in Chess World Cup 2021.
Next year, he went on to bag a massive feat, becoming only the third Indian player (after Anand and Harikrishna) to win a game against World Champion Magnus Carlsen in any time format.
He received the Arjuna Award from President Draupadi Murmu at the National Sports and Adventure Awards 2022 ceremony held at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Some of his top achievements include the bronze medal in the 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 and the Gold medal in the FIDE Online Olympiad, 2020.
Praggnanandhaa is just one step away from creating history as he is the youngest player ever and only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to reach the final in Chess World Cup history. He'll face world number one Magnus Carlsen in the final