Published Jun 09, 2026 | 7:00 AM ⚊ Updated Jun 09, 2026 | 7:00 AM
Pragganandhaa: What conquest is he plotting next? Credit: Michal Walusza / Norway Chess
Synopsis: Amma’s belief powered Praggnanandhaa’s historic win in Norway. The 20-year-old emulated one of his idols and unleashed his best at the fag end of the tournament. Here’s how he made it all happen.
All of India is toasting Praggnanandhaa now and rightly so.
What a comeback the 20-year-old has scripted while becoming the first Indian to win the Norway Chess title following a period of struggle after his win at the Tata Steel Masters in January 2025.
The win at Oslo had a generous helping of motherly magic.
Pragg said after the win that it was his Amma who tried to lift his morale by mentioning that June was an entirely new month.
“Trust me, it will change your fortune by helping you return to winning ways,” Nagalakshmi assured her boy.
The new champ laughingly quipped that he did not pay much attention to the remark then. But then the promised miracle did arrive.
Pragg sprinted to an unlikely victory by winning his last four games. At the other end of the board in these ties were Super GMs Alireza Firouzja, Dommaraju Gukesh (the world champion), Magnus Carlsen (World No 1) and Vincent Keymer (World No 6). He couldn’t afford to fall short in any of the ties. And he did not!
If there was to be a better way in which to etch his name into the record books, it has not been discovered yet.
“I think mom was onto something,” Pragg admitted, with a naughty gleam in his eye, while recounting the run after climbing the summit.
Home favourite Carlsen, whom Pragg had beaten twice in the tournament, sportingly doffed his hat to the champ.
“He won the last four classical games, which is pretty insane and as clutch as it gets! Pragg is an incredible fighter, and it is fun to see him get rewarded for that,” the chess great said.
The current win, for now, will occupy pride of place in a career that began by throwing down to the chess world the gauntlet of pronouncing Praggnanandhaa perfectly.
Those days are well past and the discussions now centre around Pragg’s power-punching ability on the chessboard.
There was another achievement for Pragg to savour at Norway.
He became just the third player to defeat the undisputed Tsar of the 64 squares Magnus Carlsen twice in a double-round-robin event. Only his idol Viswanathan Anand and Veselin Topalov—both former World Champions—have done this before.
Carlsen had been gunning for his eighth Norway Chess title at one of the toughest events on the circuit, and considered akin to the Grand Slams of tennis.
Interestingly, a little beyond the halfway mark of the event, there were not many who had looked down the points ladder and given Pragg a chance to win.
Ten-round events are more like sprints where early setbacks often brutally shut down the road for a podium finish. And despite his impressive win over Carlsen in the first half, his three subsequent losses had pushed the Indian sensation down the ladder firmly.
It was from there that mother’s magic took over and Pragg went on to unleash his unbelievable run. His four fantastic classical victories, including defeating the highest-ever rated player on the planet Carlsen and reigning World Champion D Gukesh, came at a chess event where the average Elo rating was around 2750.
Five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand has been mentoring Indian talents under his WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA) and Pragg is one player who has benefited immensely from this initiative.
Anand said, “I’m very happy for Pragg because he had a spectacular start last year. After that, I think he’s been working hard and looking for difficult fights. However, many tournaments didn’t work out. Even in Norway, after six rounds, it had not gone according to plan. But then in the last four games, it worked out spectacularly. It’s a good example of his resilience and his attitude towards work.”
Dronacharya Award winner and Pragg’s longtime trainer GM RB Ramesh said he was “really happy to see both Vaishali and Pragg coming up with strong performances in recent times.”
Pragg’s sister Vaishali, who has qualified for the women’s World Championship match against Ju Wenjun, won the WR Women’s Chess Tour Rapid event in Tokyo, the same day her brother won in Oslo.
“What is more heartening to see is that both players went through very tough times in the last couple of years but were able to overcome their nerves, self-doubts and able to show their real strength when it mattered,” Ramesh said.
A young R Pragganandhaa with his mentor GM RB Ramesh (Right, beside him). Photo: Special Arrangement
A chess prodigy, Pragg, became the youngest-ever International Master (IM) at ten years.
He grabbed the attention of the World in 2016 when he defeated GM Axel Bachmann in 18 moves to invite comparisons with the legendary Bobby Fischer. This game was compared with the much loved and celebrated Game of the Century played by 13-year-old Fischer against Donald Byrne.
His elder sister Vaishali and he became the first sister-brother duo to earn the Grandmaster (GM) titles.
They also hit the record books to become the first sister-brother duo to qualify for the Candidates tournament, the Gateway to the World Championship title. Pragg did not have a good outing at the Candidates but Vaishali defied all odds with a splendid performance to win the Women’s Candidates.
Her title match against Ju Wenjun of China is scheduled sometime in November. Not surprisingly, Pragg will be part of her Team.
Interestingly, many may not be aware that Vaishali had defeated Carlsen in 2013 at a promotional simultaneous exhibition match in Chennai. This was just before the 2013 World Championship match between Carlsen and Anand that the Norwegian great went on to win.
It was nine years later, in 2022, that a 16-year-old Pragg first beat Carlsen in an online event, The Airthings Masters in the rapid format. That win came while he was giving his board exams during the daytime and playing the tournament late at night and early in the morning. Rare talent was doing only what it could.
And it continues to…
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(Edited by R Rajesh Kumar.)
