Praggnanandha, India’s youngest chess prodigy, has made it to the news yet again with his hat-trick against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlson at the FTX Crypto Cup held at Miami last week. The Norwegian world champion was on his trailblazer wins as always, when the young GM overtook him in the tie-breaker match.
However, despite the hat-trick, the 17 year old had to settle down for the first runner up because of the score charts. He came one point behind Magnus who scored 16 from his overall wins.
This is the third time Pragg surprised Carlsen - and the world - with astute arrows from his quiver. Adding feathers to his cap is the fact that his Incredible victories come within a time span of 6 months. Earlier this year, the young Chess Master had defeated the 5 time world champion Magnus Carlson in two online matches.
The 17 year old GM’s third victory over the World Champion.
Praggnanandhaa had started out well in the tournament at the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, however, he lost the battle to Quang Liem Li, the Vietnam Chess Master and to Jan Krystof Duda, the Chess Champion from Poland.
Duda took the lead from Pragg after the first game. The next two rounds ended in a draw. The Chess Master from Poland, earned a score of 4-2 in the tie-breaker matches despite the Indian GM winning the fourth round. Pragg’s losses against the Polish player was what set the score cards in favour of Magnus Carlson to win the cup.
The clash of the Titans in the first two matches ended in a 2-2 draw. The record breaking win happened after the third round when Pragg went on to score lead points in the next 3 consecutive rounds, thereby making history once again this year. The teen had lost the first match against Carlson, getting into a draw in the next two rounds. It was the fourth round that set the records for the young world master, when he took over the lead from the GrandMaster. Praggnanandhaa won three rounds after two tie-breaks.
Pragga’s proud trainer R B Ramesh described the performance as a “ Fantastic finish towards the end”. He applauded the”great defensive skills at crucial junctures, and the good opening preparations” in his tweet calling the young GM’s performance “overall satisfying”.
Magnus had a total score of 16, while the 17 year old had to settle for 15. Alireza Firouja, another budding chess player had 15 points but he took to the second runner up position as he lost a match to Pragga earlier.
Praggnanandhaa’s Record Wins
Praggnanandhaa became the youngest International Master at the age of 10 and went to bag the Grand master Title at the age of 12. His world record breaks and laudatory victories have continued over the years to shake the chess competition charts and impress the world. Beating Magnus Carlsen is a dream-come-true for the Chennai-born.
Pragg’s initial victory against the world champion came in Feb 2022, the teen had clashed his moves to gain a winning edge over Carlson at Airthings Masters Rapid Chess Competition. His next big win against the world champion was in May this year. The surprise victory was thanks to an unanticipated blunder from the World Champion in the fifth round of the Chessables Masters online rapid chess tournament.
Praggnanandhaa also won a bronze at ‘B’ category of players at the International Chess Olympiad held at Chennai last month. His history of wins ever since the age of 7 has been illustrious and a huge trend-setter cum motivation for children to learn chess. Pragg, as he’s called in the chess world, has proved how an indoor mind game can turn the tables to make impressive world records and bring discipline to life at an early age. The rising star hails from a chess-enthusiastic family, with older sister, R Vaishali, also being a chess champion with titles such as the Woman GrandMaster and International Master.
Wrapping it up
The FTX Crypto Cup is a live chess championship under the banner of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. The FTX Crypto Cup 2022 was held between 15th- 21st Aug 2022 at Miami, Florida. The Meltwater Champion Chess Tour held its second biggest tournament this year. FTX Crypto Exchange, who are the major sponsors, offered the prize money of $210k and also$100k in bitcoin. Every winning match had prize money of $7500.
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