In an exclusive conversation with Firstpost, Indian chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa opens up about his love for the sport, not celebrating wins and recent victory over World No 1 Magnus Carlsen.
Defeating World No 1 Magnus Carlsen is no ordinary feat. That too when you are ranked No 116 in the world and are just 16, yes 16. To everyone’s surprise, it was just another day at chess prodigy R Praggnanadhaa’s house as he was in no mood to celebrate or party after his biggest win in the wee hours of 21 May at the Chessable Masters. This wasn’t Praggnanadhaa’s first win over the five-time World Champion and the recent effort established that the result in February wasn’t a fluke.
The second encounter went well beyond 2 am earlier this month with Praggnanandhaa (pronounced Pragyananda in Tamil) making the most of an error committed by his superior Danish opponent towards the end. Celebrations were last thing on his mind as the teenager was only looking for some sleep before the exam in the morning.
“In general, I don’t celebrate much after a win, irrespective of whom I am facing,” says the teen grandmaster with a calm demeanour, which is pretty much his personality. “If it’s (his opponent) a big player, it’s only going to be a learning curve for me.”
The family too shares the same sentiment as Praggnanandhaa, who eventually finished second at the tournament after losing to World No. 2 Ding Liren in the final but not before upsetting big names in World No. 9 Anish Giri and World No. 22 Wei Yi.
“We were already asleep by the time he won,” says his father Rameshbabu with a smile. “He woke us up from the sleep to inform that he has won and went back to his room to sleep. There was no question of celebration as we already were in our deep sleep.”
But as a father, he couldn’t have been more proud of what his son has achieved at such a young age.
“We were stunned to receive the news and more than that we were happy. Facing such big names at such young age is a big thing itself but our boy is beating them as well. I couldn’t have been a more proud father,” said Rameshbabu, who works as a branch manager in a corporate bank.
Praggnanandhaa, on the other hand, is staying true to his calm demeanour as he is neither unfazed by his fall at the last hurdle to World No. 2 Liren nor worried about facing the same opponent twice.
“I don’t lose sleep over a loss as I see it as a game, where you either lose or win. I have never felt nervous no matter what’s the stature of my opponent. At the end of the day, we are just playing a game. I have always tried to play a universal game so that I am able to improve on all fronts of my game and adjust as per opponent,” says Praggnanandhaa from his hometown Chennai.
Inspiration from sister
The concept of winning or losing for the Grandmaster probably comes from his elder sister R Vaishali, who is currently a women grandmaster and was Praggnanandhaa’s first inspiration to take up the sport.
Vaishali was enrolled in a chess academy nearby their home at a very young age by her parents, who were worried about her ‘bad habit’ of watching too much TV. Soon, her dear Praggu followed her Akka‘s footsteps to the academy and the duo spent hours together playing the sport.
“Once my parents put me into chess academy to keep me away from TV, I started finding the game interesting very soon and took it seriously,” says the World No 465 from Sweden, where she has been competing in a tournament. “Praggu developed an interest in the game as well and then we started playing together often.
“Initially it was mostly I beating him every day but then he started to quickly grow into the game and now it’s the other way around. That’s why I can say I wasn’t surprised at his recent performance as he has always been a special talent.”
Praggnanandhaa too cherishes playing chess with his sister at home and discussing the game they love the most.
“Having a common interest in chess really has been helpful in both of us being close to each other,” says Praggnanandhaa. “We don’t get to face off in tournaments much but it’s always fun and helpful at the same time to play and talk chess with her.”
Chasing different dreams
On a personal level, both the siblings are chasing two different dreams with Praggnanadhaa aiming to go be among the top 10 of the Classic rating with an eye on the World Champion title. Vaishali, on the other hand, is just a single norm away from becoming a Grandmaster.
To those unversed, the Grandmaster title is granted by chess’s apex body (FIDE) once a chess player earns a 2500-plus rating along with three Grandmaster norms. Pragnanadhaa achieved the same in 2018 while Vaishali, who is currently Woman Grandmaster and international master, is a norm away from becoming a Grandmaster.
Together, however, the brother-sister duo will be aiming to rewrite the history soon in July’s Chess Olympiad where they will represent India as the host nation with their city Chennai being the venue. The expectations are also high from India to excel at the event as the 20-member squad also features World No 23 Vidit Gujrathi and No 37 Pentala Harikrishna.
Both the siblings have already set their sights at the quadrennial event with the aim to excel as they understand the stature of the Olympiads with the whole fraternity keeping a keen eye on it.
“First of all, I am happy and proud that India will be hosting it, that too in Chennai. Chess Olympiad is a mega event and entire world of chess will be looking at the results, it’s like a festival,” says Pragg, whose first major breakthrough was Asian youth level gold medal at the age of seven.
Vaishali, meanwhile, is more excited about the fact that it is an on-board tournament in a post-pandemic world.
“I am very eager about it because it’s an on-board tournament. Personally, I have never been a fan of online tournaments as technical difficulties like network issues and a wrong move due to a wrong click only distracts you. Being there with my brother makes it more special as we don’t often get to win together,” concludes Vaishali.
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