-Shivani Chaturvedi (Chennai)

Chennai-based teenage chess prodigy and GM (grand master) R. Praggnanandhaa (aka RP) created history on February 22 by besting Norway’s five-time reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in 39 moves at the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour’s Airthings Masters online tournament. Only two other Indians — Viswanathan Anand and Pentala Harikrishna — have achieved this feat. History was repeated on May 21 at the Chessables Masters online rapid chess tournament in which RP again defeated Carlsen in 40 moves.

Over the past six years RP has checkmated several global Top 10 GMs including Russia-born Dutch player Anish Giri, Armenian-American Levon Aronian, Azerbaijani Mamedyarov Shakhriyar, and Filipino-American Wesley So. However, he most values his victory against Paraguayan GM Axel Bachmann at the Isle of Man championship way back in 2016, which launched his international career.

The younger of two children of A. Rameshbabu, a manager at the Tamil Nadu Co-operative Bank, and homemaker Nagalakshmi, RP is a class XI student of the Velammal Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai. “I attribute my latest success to school and parental support,” he acknowledges. According to his teachers, RP is an excellent and dedicated student, who on several occasions wrote examinations on schedule after completing tournaments at 2 a.m.

RP took to playing this complex mind game in his tender years, inspired by his elder sister R.Vaishali, also a GM. At age four, he began training at the city’s Bloom Chess Academy. By age five, he began competing and winning district and state-level championships and in 2012, won the National under-7 championship staged in Puducherry.

Despite his young age and natural aptitude for chess, RP is committed to serious training. His daily regimen includes seven hours of practice under the watchful eye of coach R.B. Ramesh.

“Chess players are fortunate compared to players of field sports. During the first and second waves of the Covid lockdown, I practiced on my laptop and was busy playing online tournaments and improved my game. But although I train seriously, I play to enjoy the game without worrying about outcomes,” says India’s youngest ever chess GM.

Way to go Champ!

Read:Jemimah Rodrigues