Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa surpasses Vishy Anand to become India's ranked no. 1 player

Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa has achieved a historic feat by becoming India’s top-ranked chess player, overtaking the legendary Viswanathan Anand in the live ratings. On Tuesday, the 18-year-old from Chennai defeated the reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the fourth round of the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

The 18-year-old defeated the reigning champion with the black pieces and surpassed the legendary Viswanathan Anand to rank 1 in the country. Praggnanandhaa expressed his surprise at the outcome, stating, ” I felt I equalized very easily, and then somehow things started to wrong for him. Even after I won the pawn, I felt it should be holdable.”

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Praggnanandhaa scored 2748.3 points in the FIDE live ratings with his victory over Ding, edging past Anand’s 2748. Anand, widely regarded as one of the greatest chess players of all time, has been the undisputed No.1 in India for over three decades. He has won the World Championship five times and is the only player to have won the title in three different formats: knockout, tournament, and match.

Pragnanndha has been a prodigy since making marks on the circuit. He started by winning the World Youth Chess Championship Under-8 title in 2013, which earned him the title of FIDE Master. He repeated his success in the under-10 category in 2015.

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He completed his grandmaster title by achieving his third and final norm at the Gredine Open in Urtijëi, Italy, on 23 June 2018, by defeating Luca Moroni in the eighth round. He became the second-youngest grandmaster in history, at the age of 12 years, 10 months, and 13 days, only behind Sergey Karjakin, who attained the title at 12 years and 7 months.

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