In Anand's footsteps

At 11, he is changing the course of chess history! Already the youngest International Master Chennai-based R Praggnanandhaa has taken the chess circuit by storm with his highly remarkable achievements. He defeated Paraguayan Grandmaster Axel Bachmann at the Isle of Man championship in October. Recently, he also won a bronze medal in the under-12 category in the World Cadets Championship held at Georgia. We catch up with his father, Ramesh Babu who talks about his son’s achievements and his dream of becoming the youngest Grandmaster of India. “It was exciting to see him defeating a grandmaster (Bachmann) in merely 18 moves. This was a great achievement and we were very happy for him. We have always been supportive of his career choice,” says the proud father.

Praggnanandhaa, who started playing the game at a young age of two-and-a-half won the Indian National Under-7 Chess Championship in Nagpur, and gold in Asian Youth Championships in Sri Lanka, before he became the world’s youngest International Master in May this year.

The little champ in action

Sharing about how his interest in the sport started growing, the father explains, “Neither my wife nor I play chess. However, our elder daughter R Vaishali, who is a two-time chess champion (won the Girls' World Youth Chess Championship for Under-14s and Under-12s, and since 2016, she is an international master), was the biggest source of inspiration for her brother, Praggnanandhaa. He keenly observed her moves, started arranging the board and made great progress in the game. Soon, we started learning about his talent, and we enrolled his name into a chess academy, where he was trained by Olympian RB Ramesh. He was first sent to Nagpur for his first national championship when he has barely six and a half years old.”

His successes reportedly also include his first international master result at Cannes, France, in February this year, quickly followed by his second at Moscow Aeroflot in March, then his third and final norm at Bhubaneswar, in May, qualifying him as an IM at 10 years nine months and breaking Karjakin’s world record by more than a year.

With his left leg paralysed, Ramesh Babu is unable to travel everywhere to see his son playing.

The father shares, “Praggnanandhaa is fussy about eating and he is naughty like any other kid, so his mother accompanies him for all the tournaments, be it anywhere in the world. Like any other 11-year-old, he loves watching cartoons on television and cycling with his friends. His favourite cartoons are Chota Bheem, Mighty Raju and Tom & Jerry. One good quality about him is that he is a very balanced child and takes the game very sportingly. He is very clear about his future plans. He wants to achieve the title of a Grandmaster. ‘I want to become like Viswanathan Anand Sir,’ he keeps saying.”