Despite defeat to Carlsen in Chess World Cup final, Pragg showed that the future could belong to him | Chess News

Just a week before the start of the FIDE World Cup, R Praggnanandhaa’s coach RB Ramesh tweeted that the ‘Era of youngsters has begun’.A week into the tournament, four Indian youngsters, for the first time ever, made it to the quarterfinals of the tournament, and stunningly, Ramesh’s ward made it to the final. More importantly, he confirmed his spot in the eight-player Candidates Tournament, the winner of which gets to challenge current world champion Ding Liren.It’s not just that the 18-year-old Pragg reached the final against Magnus Carlsen — which he lost on Thursday — but also how he made it there. He outlasted World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura, fellow teen prodigy and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi, and World No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in tie-breakers to become the youngest World Cup final ever. Seeded 31, Pragg is also the lowest seed to make the final of the World Cup.

Indian chess has seen a huge positive transformation since the Covid-19 pandemic, with interest in the sport soaring and Pragg at the heart of it all. When he beat five-time world champion Carlsen as a 16-year-old, the youngest at the time to do so, he received congratulatory messages from Prime Miner Narendra Modi and batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar, among other big names.
Growing up in the shadow of his ser Vaishali Rameshbabu, a local chess champion, Pragg began playing the game at the age of three with encouragement from his parents. He displayed exceptional chess skills at a very young age and quickly rose to prominence. At 10 years and 10 months, he became the world’s youngest International Master in 2016. He achieved this feat winning the World Youth Chess Championship in the under-14 age category. He became a Grandmaster at the age of 12 in 2018, the second youngest player to do so at the time. Pragg reached the 2600 mark in ELO ratings at the age of 14, once again a world record at the time.

Praggnanandhaa is the runner-up of the 2023 FIDE World Cup! 🥈
Congratulations to the 18-year-old Indian prodigy on an impressive tournament! 👏On his way to the final, Praggnanandhaa beat, among others, world #2 Hikaru Nakamura and #3 Fabiano Caruana! winning the silver… pic.twitter.com/zJh9wQv5pS
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 24, 2023
Seventeen-year-old D Gukesh, Pragg’s compatriot and friend, has garnered all the attention over the past six months, especially after becoming the youngest player to cross the 2750 rating mark in July before becoming the highest-rated Indian (in live ratings) going past Viswanathan Anand earlier this month. It may have seemed like Pragg was slowing down in terms of rating, but that isn’t the case, as his coach Ramesh explains.
“We lost one and a half years (to the pandemic)!” says Ramesh, who was the 10th GM of India and has been training Pragg since his early days in the sport. “In that period, he got the experience of playing with all the top players in the world. He improved his chess strength overall. But the price we paid for that was playing in a fewer number of FIDE-rated tournaments. Last year, he must have played only 60 rated games in the standard time control (games that impact ELO ratings). He wasn’t slowing down. He was just playing fewer games,” Ramesh said.
After the pandemic, as Pragg played in online rapid events, his classical ratings slowed down, but he gained valuable experience in taking on the biggest players in the world.
In 2021, he impressed in the Meltwater Champions Tour, scoring victories over top names like Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov and Jan-Krzystof Duda, while drawing against Carlsen.
He finally beat Carlsen in online rapid format in February 2022 and May 2022, before beating the Norwegian three times in a row at the FTX Crypto Cup in August 2022.
Being in the final of the World Cup is a great achievement for Pragg, having become the first Indian since Anand in 2002 to do so, but his ultimate goal will undoubtedly be to play and win the World Chess Championship. He’s got a foot in the door confirming his place in the Candidates.
‘Chess is in good hands’
After winning the World Cup for the first time, Carlsen chose not to sing his own praises but instead complimented the youngsters for their phenomenal performance, admitting that the best match he played in the tournament was against Gukesh and that the 17-year-old is the strongest classical player amongst the youngsters.

“Everybody should assume that when I say things, I mean them.”
Big interview with Magnus Carlsen is up on our YouTube: https://t.co/Bg4ZJ4jE9m pic.twitter.com/JApCjD8T2O
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) August 24, 2023
“I felt I had far my best day of the tournament against Gukesh in the first game. Otherwise, that game would have been very tough.
“Gukesh is clearly the strongest classical player right now. Then you have Pragg, who is a mentality monster. I think chess is in good hands for the future,” he told Chess24 in an interview.Most Read
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Gukesh overtaking Anand in ratings was quite inevitable and given the performances Pragg and the fact that he’s qualified for the Candidates, we could see him in the top 10 of the world rankings sooner rather than later.

Carlsen is also impressed.
“This generation of players born between 1990 and 1994 really has dominated for a long time. Finally, now we have a generation born after 2003 that’s worthy of succeeding us when the time comes. That time could surely be soon,” he said.
Pragg would tell you that his time has already come. And something tells you he’s ready for it.