Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa will debut at the Candidates tournament in Toronto with Russian chess champion Peter Svidler by his side.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa will debut at the Candidates tournament in Toronto on April 4 (Friday) with modern great and eight-time Russian chess champion Peter Svidler by his side. Peter has already played three Candidates tournaments and also won the World Cup in 2011. Currently, he is working as the 18-year-old Indian’s coach and primary second.
Hiring the services of a legend and one of the finest modern thinkers of the game is a major fillip for Praggnanandhaa. Rameshbabu himself has become a prodigy who has taken the game by storm over the past couple of years. Naturally, Svidler is an interesting choice of a second for Praggnanandhaa.
The Russian grandmaster and commentator flew to Chennai for a preparatory camp with the young Indian a few weeks ago. Candidates is an eight-player tournament which will decide the challenger for the World Chess Championship. The event will be held between April 3 and 22.
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A second’s role in chess ranges from helping a player with opening preparation, delving deep into databases and looking for paths and plans to dismantle opponents, and acting as a sounding board and sparring partner. They are typically picked by players based on their domain expertise and are expected to combine computer assistance with practical strengths and know-how.
Praggnanandhaa will be one of three Indians competing in the Open section of Candidates, with 29-year-old Vidit Gujrathi and 17-year-old D Gukesh for the company. Gukesh and Gujrathi are being assisted by former world champions Viswanathan Anand-Grzegorz Gajewski and Surya Sekhar Ganguly, respectively.
Praggnanandhaa will be accompanied by his older sister, 22-year-old R Vaishali, who will feature in the Women’s section, with her coach Sandipan Chanda, also a former second to Anand. Praggnanandhaa and Vaishali are the first brother-sister Grandmaster pair as well as the first brother-sister in history to play the Candidates.
It is unclear who’s assisting 37-year-old Koneru Humpy, the other Indian player in the Women’s section.
Read more: FIDE Candidate Tournament 2024: Fixtures, Schedule, Where to watch and more
Svidler was approached for the role following the World Cup in August 2023, where Praggnanandhaa finished runner-up after losing to world No 1 Magnus Carlsen in the final, a performance that earned the teen a spot in the Candidates.
The 47-year-old Russian had also participated in last year’s World Cup. He previously served as second to Vladimir Kramnik during the latter’s 2004 World Championship win. More recently, Svidler was second to Russian-born Kirill Alekseenko during the 2020 pandemic edition of the Candidates, which was played over two halves.
The Russian is famed for being an excellent tactician and the world’s leading expert on the Grunfeld. Svidler speaks excellent English for someone who grew up in Russia which he attained due to his voracious reading appetite. A former pupil of the legendary Botvinnik-Kasparov school, it will be interesting to see how Svidler helps the young chess prodigy.
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