At 18, India’s Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa became the world’s youngest player to reach the Chess World Cup Final in 2023. He defeated some of the world’s finest chess players, including world number 2 Hikaru Nakamura and Italian-American grandmaster Fabiano Caruana. The young genius has also defeated the “Mozart of Chess,” Magnus Carlsen, not once but twice. He has been famously called “the real deal” by five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.

Praggs, as the world calls him, is achieving feats left and right. Let us delve into the life and career of this child prodigy and find what makes him so unique.

Early Life

Praggnanandhaa was born on August 10, 2005, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. The meaning of his name is “Delight of the Intellect,” and a priest once told his parents that he would have the world under his feet one day. One day, his sister brought a chessboard home, which intrigued the three-and-a-half-year-old Praggnanandhaa. He then persuaded his sister to teach him the game. And that was the beginning of his love for the game. Praggnanandhaa was ahead of Vishwanath Anand and Magnus Carlsen as they started learning the game at six.

Chess Career 

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa’s career is one of the most impressive, considering how young he was when he achieved such feats and how young he still is. In 2011, he won the national under-7 championship; in 2013, he won the national under-9 championship. He was the youngest Indian to win the Asian Youth Chess Championship 2015. Praggnanandhaa was crowned International Master in 2016 at ten years, ten months, and eleven days. As a result, he is the youngest Indian to hold the IM title. He was then promoted to grandmaster in 2018 at 12 years, seven months, and 17 days. After Sergey Karjakin, he became the second-youngest grandmaster in history.

He has enjoyed a string of significant achievements in recent years. After defeating several top-ranked players, he won the Sinquefield Cup Rapid Tournament in 2019. Praggnanandhaa also came in third place in the World Rapid Chess Championship. He won the Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz Tournament in 2020.

Praggnanandhaa had his most significant breakthrough in 2022 when he defeated Magnus Carlsen in a rapid game at the Airthings Masters Rapid Chess Tournament. This was a significant upset because Carlsen is widely regarded as the best chess player in the world. With his victory, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest player to defeat Carlsen since the latter became world champion in 2013. But that wasn’t enough for him. In May 2022, at the Chessable Masters online rapid chess tournament, he defeated Carlsen once again, his second win over him in three months, and advanced to the finals.

Praggnanandhaa met Magnus again for their third bout in the 2023 World Chess Championship Finals. Unfortunately, the final resulted in a defeat for the Indian prodigy. However, after the match, Magnus called him a “mentality monster.” He has demonstrated that chess can achieve great things regardless of age or background.