SUMMARY
Indian chess grandmaster, R Praggnanandhaa, defeated world champion Magnus Carlsen in the last round of the FTX Crypto Cup in Miami, on Monday. This was the third time Praggnanandhaa defeated the world No1 in an international chess championship. However, the 17-year-old chess prodigy had to settle for the second position despite the win, as Carlsen had a higher score based on previous rounds.
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The strength of Indian chess has been demonstrated at the global stage, time and again. Indian chess players are winning medals at all age-group events and many youngsters have made it to the list of Grandmasters in the last five years. Here is a look at some of the top chess prodigies of India. (Image: Reuters)
2 / 5R Praggnanandhaa | Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu is the fourth-youngest Chess Grandmaster in history (as of April 2021). He earned the title at 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days of age, becoming the youngest GM at the time. Praggnanandhaa has won three world youth titles, U8 in 2013, U10 in 2015, and U18 in 2019. He recently won a bronze medal with the Indian team at the 2022 FIDE Olympiad. Another recent feat of R Praggnanandhaa was taking the runner up spot at the FTX Crypto Cup after defeating the world champion Magnus Carlsen in the last round. (Image: @sachin_rt/Twitter)
3 / 5Nihal Sarin | Nihal Sarin is another Indian chess prodigy who became a Grandmaster at the age of 14. He is currently one of the top 10 players in India with a FIDE world ranking of 98. In 2013, Nihal won the U-10 World Blitz Championship followed by the U-10 World Youth Chess Championship the next year. In 2020, Nihal won chess.com's Junior Speed Chess Championship gold medal as part of the Indian team in the FIDE Chess Olympiad. He also won the U-18 World Youth Championship 2020 in an online rapid format. (Image: @pinarayivijayan/Twitter)
4 / 5Gukesh D | Dommaraju Gukesh became the second-youngest grandmaster in history in January 2019 (currently third), at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days of age narrowly missing GM Sergey Karjakin’s record by 17 days. Gukesh is one of India’s brightest chess talents and in July 2022, he achieved a live FIDE rating of 2700, the fourth-youngest player to ever do so. He currently has a FIDE world ranking of 38. (Image: @SusanPolgar/Twitter)
5 / 5Raunak Sadhwani | Raunak Sadhwani is another Indian chess grandmaster and a prodigy, who earned the GM title at the age of just 13, to become the ninth-youngest in history at the time. Sadhwani played alongside world-class players such GMs Hikaru Nakamura, Alireza Firouzja, Levon Aronian, Daniel Naroditsky, and more in the 2021 Bullet Chess Championship. He won a bronze medal with the Indian team at the 2022 FIDE Olympiad and is currently ranked 152 in the FIDE world rankings. (Image: @sadhwani2005/Twitter)
