R Praggnanandhaa explains why players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura are moving away from classical chess | Chess News

With players like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura gradually moving away from playing classical chess, Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa said that it was likely due to the mental and physical exhaustion that comes as a part of playing the format.
“It’s difficult to play classical chess because everyone is well prepared… the opening preparation part is huge in classical chess. If you compare it to freestyle, you don’t have to prepare before a game, while in classical chess, you’re basically forced to. I don’t think anyone actually enjoys that process, but you’re forced to and you have to have a plan for everything. That requires a lot of effort,” said Praggnanandhaa.
“And when you play a lot of such tournaments, then your energy is also (drained)… I mean you can also be mentally and physically exhausted. So all these things happen. I think that’s the reason why everyone prefers other formats. I mean, I myself like freestyle much more because of the fact that you don’t have to prepare before a game. That doesn’t mean we don’t want to work on (our) chess. We enjoy working on chess. But the fact that you have to (put endless hours in preparations)… you’re forced to do before the game like three-four hours of preparation, then it’s not really something that everyone enjoys. So yeah, I like freestyle. I like rapid and it’s a bit more than classical for sure. But I think classical is still the main thing,” he added.
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Magnus, the five-time world champion, and world No.2 American Grandmaster Nakamura have played fewer classical games, and instead focused on freestyle, rapid and blitz formats.
Praggnanandhaa has won three tournaments already this year, including the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in February and the Superbet Chess Classic Romania in May earlier in the year.

The 19-year old also gained 12 rating points, thanks to his performance at the UzChess Cup tournament in Tashkent, which helped him climb to the world no 4 spot for the first time in his career in the latest FIDE ratings l released the global governing body of chess on July 1.