Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, sometimes nicknamed as Pragg, is a young Indian chess player who has made waves in the international chess scene with his impressive performances. Born on August 10, 2005, in Chennai (Chin-eye), India, he began playing chess at the age of three.
Praggnanandhaa's talent was immediately apparent, and he quickly rose through the ranks to become one of the top chess players in his age group. He has won numerous national and international titles, and his accomplishments include:
In 2013 at the age of 7, he won the World Youth Championship in the Under-8 year old division earning him his FIDE Master title. He also won the Under 10 section in 2015.
He became the World’s youngest International Master in 2016, at the age of just 10 years and 10 months.
Two years later, he earned his 3rd Grandmaster norm at the Gredine Open in Italy to become the 2nd youngest person ever to earn his Grandmaster title at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days. (Since that point, 3 others have earned it quicker placing him 5th on the list). The same year, his older sister - Vaishali - earned her Women’s Grandmaster Title.
In 2021, he was in the World Cup seeded 90th and made it to the 4th round before losing to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (the 7th seed).
Pragg has also competed in the Tata Steel Tournament in 2022 and 2023 with okay scores, but he did beat World Champion Ding Liren. In the past 2 years, he has also beaten Magnus Carlsen on 4 different occasions (only the 3rd Indian player to have beaten Magnus and at the time the youngest to have beaten Magnus since he had become the World Champion).
Earlier this year, at the age of 18, he became the world’s youngest player to reach the Chess World Cup Final, he lost to Carlsen but secured 2nd place qualifying him for the 2024 Candidates Tournament.
The youngest IM, 2nd youngest to become a GM, and having beaten two World Champions - Praggnanandhaa's accomplishments in chess at such a young age are truly remarkable. He has proven himself to be a fierce competitor and a rising star in the chess world. With his talent, we can expect him to achieve even greater things in the future.
This week, we are going to the fairly recent Reykjavik Open in 2022.
Rameshbabu Praggnananadhaa versus Mattieu Cornette.
Now, if we’re ready… let’s begin.
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd2 d5 6. Nf3 b6 7. cxd5 exd5 8. Bd3
Bb7 9. Qc2 Re8 10. a3 Bf8 11. Ng5 g6 12. h4 Bg7 13. O-O-O Ng4 14. Nxh7 Kxh7 15.
h5 Kg8 16. hxg6 f6 17. Rdf1 Nc6 18. Ne2 Qd6 19. Ng3 Ne7 20. Rh7 f5 21. Nh5 Bf8
22. Bxf5 Nf6 23. Bb4 c5 24. dxc5 bxc5 25. Bxc5 1-0
https://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=2267590
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R_Praggnanandhaa
https://www.patreon.com/BlindfoldChessPodcast
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