Praggnanandhaa stuns world champion Liren in Tata Steel tourney; surpasses Anand as No 1 Indian

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Defeating reigning champion

With the 62-move win with black pieces, Praggnanandhaa became the second Indian after Anand to defeat a reigning world champion in classical chess.

Praggnanandhaa had also beaten Liren at the 2023 Tata Steel tournament.

“That feels good!” Praggnanandhaa said after the win. He is now third in the standings with 2.5 points in the Masters event.

The Masters group saw Dutch player Anish Giri emerge as the sole leader heading into the first rest day. Giri’s endgame prowess secured him victory against teenaged Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh to take him to 3.5 points.

Alireza Firouzja is half a point behind the leader by 3 points.

The third Indian player in the fray, Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was held to a draw by Jorden van Foreest in round four. He has 2 points from four rounds.

In the fifth round to be held on Thursday, Praggnanandhaa will run into the leader Anish Giri while his compatriots Gukesh and Gujrathi will take on Ian Nepomniachtchi and Max Warmerdam, respectively.

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Praggnanandhaa’s career 

The teenaged Indian Grandmaster has been in good form in recent times, having finished runner-up in the World Cup to Magnus Carlsen last year to qualify for the Candidates tournament to be held in April to identify the challenger to Liren.

He took up chess at the age of 4.5 years and won the national Under-7 title. There has been no turning back since then.

From becoming the youngest International Master in 2016, when he rose to fame, at the age of 10, to achieving the feat of Grandmaster two years later, Praggnanandhaa has broken the ceiling several times.

He became the youngest player (16) ever to beat the world champion, Magnus Carlsen, last year and later the first chess player in 14 years from the southern states to win the prestigious Arjuna Award. Of the 82 Grandmasters India has produced, over 50 percent (46) have come from the five southern states.

Late in 2019, he achieved an ELO rating (used to measure the skills of a player) of 2,600 at 14 years and three months.

While Covid-19 hampered the offline tournaments, Praggnanandhaa sparkled in online formats. He scored impressive victories over top names like Sergey Karjakin, Teimour Radjabov, and Jan-Krzysztof Duda, and drew with Carlsen in the Meltwater Champions Tour in 2021.

The next year, he stunned Carlsen in the Airthings Masters rapid tournament and became only the third Indian — after Anand and P Harikrishna — in a battle against a seemingly unbeatable Carlsen.

(With PTI inputs)