- Saturday, July 27, 2024
The 18-year-old Indian lost to world No.1 Magnus Carlsen in the tie-breaker after their first two games ended in draw.
By: Shubham Ghosh
HE did not give up easily against the world’s No.1 chess player and proved to the world that he is a rising star in the world of the game of brains. Eighteen-year-old Indian grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa stormed into the final of the FIDE World Cup Chess final in Baku, Azerbaijan, and fought valiantly against the great Magnus Carlsen in the title round after drawing the first two classical games.
The Norwegian Carlsen, who won his maiden world cup title, proved to be the more dominant opponent in the tie-breaker held on Thursday (24). The Indian teen, however, had a lot to take home from the prestigious tournament as he beat higher-ranked opponents such as world No.2 Hikaru Nakamura and world No.3 Fabiano Caruana on his way to the final.
He became the first Indian to reach the world cup final after former world No.1 Vishwanathan Anand.
By winning the runner-up medal, Praggnanandhaa also secured a ticket to the FIDE Candidates Tournament to be held in Canada next April. Indian prime minister Narendra Modi also praised him like several Indians saying his was no small feat.
But the prodigy was feeling homesick after the tournament got over.
Speaking to NDTV news channel, Praggnanandhaa, who was born in Chennai in the southern state of Tamil Nadu, said he was looking forward to having some south Indian food.
“I like to have Indian food over the food that we have here. I am hoping to have south Indian food,” he said.
“We have players like D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi. It’s time to get stronger. Gukesh has already gone into the top-10. We are also hoping to go into the top-10,” he was quoted as saying by the channel.
(With PTI inputs)
