Indian prodigy makes history in chess World Cup
On the way to the final, Praggnanandhaa beat world number three Fabiano Caruana and number two Hikaru Nakamura. His opponent in the final was the number one Carlsen, and this was beyond the imagination of the 18-year-old player. "Before the tournament, I never thought about the opportunity to meet Carlsen," he said. "Because in different brackets, to meet each other, we have to go to the final. But I didn't think about the opportunity to reach the final."
Praggnanandhaa has an Elo before the tournament of 2,690, corresponding to the 31st seed, exempt from the first round. He then eliminated Maxime Lagarde, David Navara, Nakamura, Ferenc Berkes and Erigaisi Arjun, respectively. In the semi-final tie-break series against Caruana on August 21, the Indian prodigy won 2.5-1.5 to reach the final against Carlsen, while the Italian-American player had to play the third place match with Nijat Abasov.
Praggnanandhaa broke many World Cup records, as the first teen player to reach the final, and the first seed outside the Top 30 to do so. Previously, the smallest seed to reach the final was number 21 Dmitry Andreikin in 2013, while the youngest player to do so was Ruslan Ponomariov in 2005 at the age of 22.
Praggnanandhaa is called a chess prodigy, because he was awarded the title of International Master (IM) at the age of 10, the youngest player to do so at that time. Praggnanandhaa became a Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 12, the second youngest player to do so at the time. Grandmaster is the highest title awarded to chess players by FIDE, so those who reach this level under the age of 14 are often considered child prodigies. In February 2022, Praggnanandhaa also became the youngest player to win against Carlsen, even though it was only a fast online chess format.
Carlsen also defeated another Indian chess prodigy in the quarterfinals of this tournament, Gukesh Dommaraju. According to Elo currently, Gukesh is ranked number one in the world, while Praggnanandhaa rises to 23rd.
The important thing for Praggnanandhaa is that he definitely won a place in Candidates 2024 - a tournament in which eight players compete in a two-round round to choose a challenger to world champion Dinh Lap Nhan. Praggnanandhaa is the third youngest player in history to beat Candidates, after the legendary Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.
The final match between Praggnanandhaa and Carlsen takes place in a maximum of three days, starting at 6pm today 22/8 with the first standard game, when the Indian prodigy holds the white piece. The women's group final ended on August 21 with the victory for second seed Aleksandra Goryachkina, closing the historic tournament of 20-year-old female player Nurgyul Salimova.
