Indian chess grandmaster : Who is Praggnanandhaa?
The world is hailing a new chess prodigy from India – Praggnanandhaa or ‘Pragg’ as he is well known. Who is he and what are his achievements? 8 year old Srishti, a Bookosmian blogger from Bangalore tells us all about him in this fabulous profile.
Indian chess grandmaster : Who is Praggnanandhaa?
You must have heard about a new, awesome chess grandmaster. Well if you do then good if you don’t you’ll get to know about him now. His name is Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu. He is 16 years old. Praggnanandhaa was born in Chennai, Tamil Nadu on 10 August 2005.
Chess seems to run in his family as his older sister is Woman Grandmaster and International Master, Vaishali Rameshbabu.
So when I read about prodigies, I always wonder at what age did they discover their passion. Praggnanandhaa started playing at the age of 5! He started by watching his sister play and soon began to play as well.
First, he played some chess tournaments for under 8 category. Then he played for under 10 category. Later, he played against one of his role models, Sergey Karjakin and won! Most recently he again defeated World No 1 Magnus Carlsen in Airthings Masters. In 2016, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest international master in history, at the age of 10 years.
On 12 October 2019, he won the World Youth Championships in the Under-18 section. Praggnanandhaa‘S coach is RB Ramesh who is an Indian chess grandmaster from Chennai and has won the 2002 British Championship and the 2007 Commonwealth Championship.
What I like about how Praggnanandhaa plays chess is that he thinks about moves that the opponent can’t even imagine. I analyzed some of his games with people and it literally confused me, because I play in a very different way.
What I also like about him is that though he has achieved many things he is still humble. Also he is very hard working because to achieve something so big he definitely has to work hard. He is very caring too because I read that his sister and he donated money for people that were stuck in floods.
You might have noticed that he applies ash on his forehead. In a recent tournament, an international journalist asked him about it. He said, “ I do it because my mother asked me to do it very early on. It’s just my practice, I do it every day,” he said. On being asked if it brings luck, the chess genius said, “I’m not sure,” as onlookers laughed. “Sometimes, sometimes not,” Praggnanandhaa added, says a report from Moneycontrol.com.
I like him because he inspires me to move forward and continue my learning of chess. Hope you like my short blog. He inspired me and I am sure he will inspire you too. So keep shining and stay tuned for more of my blogs.
