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Mumbai: Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa scripted history on Tuesday, as the 18-year-old prodigy from Chennai beat World Champion Ding Liren at the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament and moved past veteran chess Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand to become the No. 1 ranked Indian Grandmaster for the first time in his career.
The victory over the world champion from China took Praggnanandhaa by surprise as he was not expecting the former to go down so easily. GM Anish Giri is now the sole leader in the Masters group going into the first rest day thanks to winning deep in the endgame against GM Gukesh Dommaraju. GM Alireza Firouzja is in second place.
18-year-old Praggnanandhaa was quoted as saying by Chess.com, “I felt I equalized very easily and then somehow things started to go wrong for him. Even after I won the pawn I felt it should be holdable.” He added, “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.”
Praggnanandhaa called it a “strange game,” because it went surprisingly smoothly. He seemed content with the kind of start he has got in the tournament but is wary of the challenges that lie ahead of him.
After this, he said,”It’s good. I think the first three games were quite interesting. I think I am playing well but it was the same case last year. There was a point when I was playing really well and then my play dropped quite badly so I think it’s really important to keep the energy high till the end of the tournament.”
