Viswanathan Anand praises R. Praggnanandhaa’s ‘sensational year’

After winning the Uzchess Cup Masters last month, R. Praggnanandhaa rose to World No. 4 (Elo 2779) in the live ratings, becoming the highest-ranked Indian now.

It was his third title of the year, after wins at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest. The latter was his maiden Grand Chess Tour (GCT) title.

“This year has been good for me so far. And I hope it continues. We (he and his coach R.B. Ramesh) made some changes in my game. I think that’s showing the results. Last year, things didn’t go my way. Ramesh and I were working, trying to find things to change. And we made some changes. I think those were critical,” said the 19-year-old at the launch of Chola Chess, a CSR initiative from the Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited, in collaboration with Chess Gurukul, on Wednesday.

Praggnanandhaa, who’s atop the FIDE Circuit leaderboard now, was wary that the other players might catch up and stressed the importance of finishing as the leader to qualify for the Candidates.

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India chess legend and five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand applauded Praggnanandhaa’s ‘sensational’ form.

“So, he was joint-first in four tournaments, out of which he didn’t win one. He won the other three. But joint-first in four is already a great start. He’s having a sensational year overall. I think, for him, this year is a reaction to missing out on (winning) the Candidates last year. He’s got that extra motivation,” said Anand.

When asked about World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s recent jibes at reigning World Champion Gukesh, Anand said: “They come with the territory. You cannot expect to be World Champion and say people will just be nice to me. You have to just face that.”