Budget 2024: Why did Finance Miner Nirmala Sitharaman mention Magnus Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa in her speech? | Chess News

Finance Miner Nirmala Sitharaman, while presenting the Interim Budget 2024 in the Lok Sabha on Thursday, mentioned the remarkable progress Indian chess players have been making on the 64 squares.
Sitharaman was presenting her sixth budget, having first done so in 2019. She has now equalled the record tally of former Prime Miner Morarji Desai.
While speaking of the progress India has made in the sphere of sports, she singled out the 18-year-old grandmaster from Chennai, R Praggnanandhaa, for his exploits in 2023.
“The country is proud of youth scaling new heights in sports. Chess prodigy and our No 1 ranked player R Praggnanandhaa put up a stiff fight against the reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023. Today, India has over 80 chess grandmasters compared to to a little over 20 in 2010,” she said as the camera cut to a shot of India’s Prime Miner Narendra Modi tapping his table appreciatively.
Sitharaman was referring to the prestigious FIDE World Cup where Praggnanandhaa battled former world champion Carslen for the title. While the Indian lost eventually, it was not before he caused a few creases of worry on the Norwegian’s forehead.
It must be noted that while Praggnanandhaa was briefly the country’s top ranked chess player, it’s Viswanathan Anand, India’s first GM, who is still the India No 1, both in the FIDE’s published rankings for January 2024 (which are updated at the end of each month) and in the current live ratings (which are updated in real-time).
With a standard rating of 2747, Pragg is currently the world’s top ranked junior chess player.

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The country received its highest ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2023
Chess prodigy and our No. 1 ranked player Praggnanandhaa put up a stiff fight against world champion Magnus Carlsen in 2023, today, India has over 80…
— PIB India (@PIB_India) February 1, 2024
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Since Viswanathan Anand became the country’s first grandmaster in 1989, India has seen a boom in chess grandmasters, with R Vaishali, Praggnanandhaa’s ser becoming India’s 84th grandmaster. At the end of 2010, India had 23 grandmasters.
Sitharaman also mentioned India’s remarkable medals tally in the Asian Games in Hangzhou, where India defied naysayers to reach the triple-digit medals mark for the first time in the hory of Asiad.
“The country received its highest ever medal tally in Asian Games and Asian Para Games in 2023,” the Press Information Bureau’s X handle reported her as saying.