 "R Praggnanandhaa defeated Magnus Carlsen for first time in Classical at Norway Chess 2024. Image: Norway Chess")
R Praggnanandhaa has emerged as the toughest competitor for world No.1 Magnus Carlsen among the rising chess stars from India, even a lot more than world champion D Gukesh. Only 20, Praggnanandhaa has already beaten the five-time world champion Carlsen multiple times across formats, and recently twice within a three-day period at the Las Vegas Freestyle Chess event.
The current world No.4, Praggnanandhaa, however, doesn’t see it as a massive achievement as he knows the 34-year-old Carlsen still wins more often than not against him or the other rising stars.
“Not like I win against him all the time,” Praggnanandhaa told Forbes when asked about his recent wins over the highest-rated chess player of all time.
Praggnanandhaa doesn’t treat Carlsen comeptition as special
While there’s a long way for Praggnanandhaa to become a powerful player like Carlsen, the youngster from Chennai has revealed that he doesn’t believe in preparing in a “different way” when playing against the all-conqueror, who relinquished the world title in 2022.
“Doing something different for a particular opponent will show that you are taking that particular game more seriously. It’s not a good thing. My process for every opponent, as for Carlsen, remains the same,” Praggnanandhaa said when asked if he had a special way to prepare for matches against Carlsen.
“As far as Magnus goes, I’ve also had some losses against him, so it’s not like I beat him all the time. In the Las Vegas freestyle tournament, I won the game [against Magnus] in the round robin stage but lost the classification round 3-1 despite winning the first game.”
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Praggnanandhaa also revealed in the interview that he is a fan of the former Olympic and world champion Neeraj Chopra, who has emerged as India’s best athlete in recent times. “He finishes first or second in all major events. That’s some consistency,” Praggnanandhaa said.
Besides Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh doing well, Arjun Erigaisi managed to cross the 2800 Elo rating recently and Divya Deshmukh won the FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup. Last year, the Indian men’s and women’s teams won the Olympiad gold medals for the first time.
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Talking about the reasons for this sudden and rapid rise in the quality of chess players from India, who are all in their early 20s or teenagers, Praggnanandhaa credited five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand for inspiring the new generation and the availability of top coaches in India.
“First is the inspiration we get from Anand sir. We all look up to him. After that, we have a good system in India with continuous tournaments where you can sharpen your game. A lot of the earlier grandmasters have turned trainers, so training has gone up by a level. We are also getting support from the government, and corporates are coming into the game.”