R Praggnandhaa - U18 world champion, youngest to reach 2600

[jaydeep]

The young R Praggnandhaa has become India’s youngest and world’s second youngest Grandmaster at age of 12 years, 10 months and 13 days ... He missed out on becoming the youngest ever by three months with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine holding the record of being the youngest Grandmaster in the world at 12 years, 7 months.

Youngest grandmasters in history

1. Sergey Karjakin (Ukraine) 12 years, 7 months
2. R Praggnandhaa (India) 12 years, 10 months
3. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (Uzbekistan) 13 years, 1 month
4. Parimarjan Negi (India) 13 years, 4 months
5. Magnus Carlsen (Norway) 13 years, 4 months

R Praggnanandhaa becomes second youngest Grandmaster ever

[suresh]

While this is good news, let's hope that Praggnandhaa becomes a top GM like Vishy contending for the World championship on a regular basis. #4 on the list disappeared from the Chess scene after going to Stanford.

[Tolamu]

The young R Praggnandhaa has become India’s youngest and world’s second youngest Grandmaster at age of 2 years, 10 months and 13 days ... He missed out on becoming the youngest ever by three months with Sergey Karjakin of Ukraine holding the record of being the youngest Grandmaster in the world at 12 years, 7 months.

I was dumbfounded before I read on.

[jaydeep]

I was dumbfounded before I read on.

My bad ... Updated the post

[Sin Hombre]

Good for Praggu who sealed it with a win in the last round as well.

His last 12 months has been poor with a lot of pressure being heaped on the young kid by his parents, sponsors and Indian media to become the youngest GM ever, which meant he has been playing nonstop and hasn't worked on his game as someone his age should. Nihal who was probably weaker 12 months back is now a considerably stronger player, despite not having a 3rd GM norm.

As Ramesh says, it is now time for young Praggu to focus back on what is really important which is his game.

Fastest to GM doesn't have as much correlation to success as people think.

[Sin Hombre]

While this is good news, let's hope that Praggnandhaa becomes a top GM like Vishy contending for the World championship on a regular basis. #4 on the list disappeared from the Chess scene after going to Stanford.

Pari was already stagnating before he went to Stanford.

[suresh]

While this is good news, let's hope that Praggnandhaa becomes a top GM like Vishy contending for the World championship on a regular basis. #4 on the list disappeared from the Chess scene after going to Stanford.

Pari was already stagnating before he went to Stanford.

Thanks for your comments. I don't follow chess very closely. Your comments in the earlier part of this thread points out what I was afraid of!

[Prashant]

Negi was still comfortably a top 100 player, but I don't know if he ever got much higher than that - I read an interview with him a while back where he said that he was both frustrated with his lack of progress up the rankings, and unsure if chess could really provide a living wage. Chess, like many other sports, can only provide a good income to the very top few. Others need either sponsorship, or a side income. He did play #1 board for us when India finished 3rd in the Chess Olympiad, so he was definitely a tremendous talent at the senior level.

[Atithee]

Something on Negi about his decision:

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/09/2 ... andmaster/

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-spo ... 339358.ece

From Wikipedia:
Negi did schooling from Amity International School in New Delhi. Graduated from Stanford University, USA with Mathematics major in 2018 Registered as a research student (PhD ) in computer science at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

[ajay]

From Wikipedia:
Negi did schooling from Amity International School in New Delhi. Graduated from Stanford University, USA with Mathematics major in 2018 Registered as a research student (PhD ) in computer science at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

Interesting to see Negi joining PhD program in Computer Science at MIT. This rings a bell in my ears as my daughter is also joining MIT computer science this year as an undergrad student.

[prasen9]

MIT is one of the top Ph.D. programs in CS (along with CMU, Berkeley and Stanford). Good for him.

[prashanthm]

Something on Negi about his decision:

https://www.stanforddaily.com/2014/09/2 ... andmaster/

http://www.thehindu.com/sport/other-spo ... 339358.ece

From Wikipedia:
Negi did schooling from Amity International School in New Delhi. Graduated from Stanford University, USA with Mathematics major in 2018 Registered as a research student (PhD ) in computer science at The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a private research university located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States.

Wow! Good to know. I should probably go meet Pari sometime...

[suresh]

Wow! Good to know. I should probably go meet Pari sometime...

How about an interview for SI?

[sameerph]

He won gold at world youth chess championships -

World Youth Chess Championship: Praggnanandhaa wins gold as India collects record seven medals

Now he is only 14. So, looks outstanding to win an under 18 title at that age. But, not sure if the field consisted of all the best players in that age group.

[Sin Hombre]

I followed this tournament quite closely.

The field missed the top 4 u18 players in the world (including Nihal Sarin) but that's besides the point.

Praggna was quite impressive throughout and had a tournament performance rating (TPR) of above 2700.

This is his 2nd tournament (after Xtracon open earlier) win in his last 3, and also another >2700 TPR.

He stagnated for a couple of years between 2500 and 2540 as he was put under too much pressure by the Indian media and family, but seems to have started making upwards strides this year (also competed really well against Wei Yi in online speed chess recently).

World Juniors (essentially u20) is up next in Delhi and he should have a very good chance in this form (well he did almost win it at age 12 two years back). He also has a chance to beat Wei Yi's record to be the youngest to get to 2600.

Previously, I had concerns on his max potential relative to age peers like Alireza and Nihal, but he is starting to prove those wrong in recent months.



Amongst other competitors, DIvya Deshmukh and Rakshitta Ravi were the top 2 seeds in the girls u14 and finished 3rd and 2nd respectively. Similar story in the open u14.