Rameshbabu Praggnanadhaa made everyone proud when he reached the FIDE Chess World Cup final 2023 and despite a defeat against the world no.1 Magnus Carlsen, he grabbed the praise from every Indian.
The 18-year-old Praggnanadhaa became an International Master (IM) at the age of 10, the youngest at the time, to display his natural talent. At the age of 12, he became India's youngest and world's second-youngest to clinch the Grand Slam title. He beat the world no.2 and no.3 in the recent World Cup tournament and jumped to 20th position in the FIDE World Rankings.
For India, Praggnanadhaa is now only behind D Gukesh and veteran Viswanathan Anand in the world rankings. He has already established himself as one of the generational talents not just in India but in the world and is tipped to further progress in his career.
He has already featured in the World Cup final and he is only 18, so fans are already expecting higher achievements from him. But at the moment, the biggest question in the Indian chess fraternity is whether Praggnanadhaa can reach the level of Vishwanathan Anand or can become India's next Vishwanathan Anand.
IndiaTV News ran the poll to understand fans' opinion or thought on Praggnanadhaa's comparison with the legendary Vishwanthan on August 26. We asked, "Can India's 18-year-old Grand Master Praggnanandhaa become the second Vishwanathan Anand?" and 5500 people reacted to our poll to conclude the question.
Almost 93% of 5500 voters said that Praggnanandhaa could become the second Vishwanathan Anand while only 3% voted no. So, it is not hard to predict the future of India's prodigy as he can even surpass Vishwanathan's historic achievements to put India in a further dominating position in the chess world.
As a runner-up in the World Cup, Praggnanandha has qualified for the Candidates 2024 tournament which will be played in Canada. He becomes the only third -youngest Grand Master after legendary Bobby Fischer and Carlsen to qualify for the Candidates tournament.
