Praggnanandhaa defeats World Champion Ding Liren, surpasses Viswanathan Anand to become India’s No.1

Guwahati, Jan 17: Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa proudly secured the coveted number one spot among India’s chess players following his win against world champion Ding Liren.

The 18-year-old sensation claimed victory over Liren while playing with the black pieces at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament on Wednesday, surpassing the legendary Viswanathan Anand and seizing the number one position.

Praggnanandhaa expressed surprise, admitting he didn’t anticipate the world champion’s unexpected ousting in such a manner.

“I felt equalised very easily and then somehow things started to go wrong for him. Even after I won the pawn I felt it should be hold able”, Praggnanandhaa was quoted as saying.

“I think any day, if you beat such a strong player, it’s always special because it’s not very easy to beat them. The first time winning against a world champion in classical chess feels good,” he added.

Having embarked on his chess journey at the age of 5, Praggnanandhaa achieved the remarkable feat of becoming India’s youngest grandmaster and the world’s second youngest at just 12 in 2018.

After Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov, Praggnanandhaa is the fifth-youngest person ever to secure the title of Grandmaster. Interestingly, his elder sister, R. Vaishali, is also a grandmaster, making them the world’s first-ever-brother-sister duo to achieve such a status in the realms of chess.