How did the Chennai prodigy do so well in two events simultaneously? South First speaks to the father of Pranav V.
Representing India, Pranav V won a gold medal on Board No.1 at the World Youth Chess Olympiad (Supplied)
India’s 75th grandmaster Pranav V has finished first in two international chess events at the same time.
How is this even possible?
He was representing India at the World U-16 Youth Olympiad in Azerbaijan and won a gold medal on board number 1. At the same time, he was decimating opponents in an online tournament — the 2022 Magnus Academy Challenge.
The former is organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) annually while the later was part of the online chess tour conducted by the Norwegian World Chess Champion Magnus Carlsen’s organisation after the Covid pandemic broke out.
While the Youth Olympiad — a classical chess tournament — was held from 1 to 11 October, the Magnus Academy Challenge, a blitz event, was played only on two days — 8 and 9 October.
“Playing two different time controls (classical and blitz) at the same time was definitely difficult. But Pranav was interested in playing both tournaments,” his father Venkatesh M told South First.
“After winning the Magnus Carlsen challenge, his name will be known to many big players. At the same time, higher-level challenges will come now. But with it, he will also collect useful experience,” K Visweswaran, FIDE trainer and coach of Pranav, told South First.
“Pranav is very disciplined. He loves chess and practices throughout the day,” Visweswaran, who has produced several GMs, added.
India's 75th @GM_Pranav_V scored an impressive 8/9 to win an individual Gold medal on board no.1 at FIDE World Youth U-16 Chess Olympiad 2022
Board #1
🥇GM Pranav 🇮🇳 8/9
🥈FM Eray Kilic 🇹🇷 6.5/9
🥉IM Mukhiddin Madamino 🇺🇿 6/9📷WYCO 2022 Nakhchivan#Chess #ChessBaseIndia pic.twitter.com/GEfQVxjcpl
— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) October 11, 2022
This comes after last month Karnataka’s Charvi Anilkumar and Kerala’s Safin Shafiullakhan (both in U-8 category) won the world championships at Batumi city in Georgia.
Similar to the Chess Olympiad held in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu, recently, the Youth Olympiad is a team event in which six members represented the country in the U-16 age group.
In every round, while two players are rested, four face their opponents on their respective boards.
Pranav V was undefeated in both the tournaments
The Indian team consisted of the Tamil Nadu boys quartet of Pranav V, Pranesh M, Harshad S, and Rohit S, along with two female players, Mrittika Mallick (West Bengal) and Boramanikar Tanisha S (Maharashtra).
Pranav was the only undefeated player in the Indian squad throughout the tournament, which finished fifth out of the 34 participating countries.
The 15-year-old won seven of the nine rounds while drawing the other two and won the gold medal on the top board.
Performing well above expectations, the Chennai wizard, whose current rating is 2530, also finished with the highest rating performance of 2615 in the championship.
Among his team mates, Pranesh and Harshad were the best Indians by rating performance after Pranav. They managed to secure the fourth position on their respective boards. Tanisha from Maharashtra secured a bronze medal on the sixth board.
The Indian team, which was at the third place after eight rounds, fell behind Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan after suffering a 1-3 loss to Turkey.
Turkey won the overall team championship followed by Uzbekistan.
Pranav V went on a chess tour to Europe earlier this year where he completed the requirements for the grandmaster title (Supplied)
Despite playing all the nine games in the World U-16 Olympiad, Pranav won the online tournament with a commanding performance.
In the round-robin (or all-play-all) event with 15 players, Pranav won 12 games and drew the remaining.
“Pranav is very much interested in blitz and plays it very well. This is a good result. I see this as a good opportunity for him to play with strong players in future, (which is) needed for him to reach the next level,” his father Venkatesh said.
Apart from Pranav, there were four other Indians who played in the blitz event — Grandmaster Bharath Subramaniyam H, Woman International Master Sahithi Varshini, Ilamparthi AR, and Woman International Master Vishwa Vasnawala.
The world’s youngest grandmaster, Abhimanyu Mishra, from the US, also took part in the event.
Pranav and International Master Ihor Samunenkov from Ukraine, who finished second in this event, have now qualified for the Challengers Chess Tour Finals, scheduled at the end of this month.
There, they will be joined by the strong Russian Grandmaster Andrey Esipenko and Indian grandmaster Raunak Sadhwani, who was part of the young India-B team that won a bronze in the recent Chess Olympiad held in Mahabalipuram.
Venkatesh M, father of chess grandmaster Pranav V
Pranav became a chess grandmaster in August this year. His father had earlier decided not to shave his beard till his son achieved the title!
Speaking about his beard challenge, Venkatesh laughed and said, “Pranav was playing in tournaments in Europe and I was with him in June. I decided that I would not cut my beard till he became the grandmaster. Becoming a grandmaster is not what happens every day, right?”
“Chess is his passion. I wanted to be focused, to do things that will be helpful for him to achieve the title. So I decided not to shave my beard as a reminder. Luckily for us, it [the grandmaster title] happened in five tournaments!” Venkatesh recollected.
About the role of his family, coach Visweswaran said that both his parents are down-to-earth and have made a lot of sacrifices. “Whatever financial difficulties they face, they have never stopped him from participating in international tournaments,” he added.
(With inputs from Prasanna RS)
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