Sports News | R Praggnanandhaa Surpasses Viswanathan Anand to Become India's No.1, Following Victory over Ding Liren
Get latest articles and stories on Sports at LatestLY. Young chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa clinched the number one spot among India's chess players following his victory over World Champion Ding Liren.
New Delhi [India], January 17 (ANI): Chess prodigy Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa clinched the number one spot among India's chess players following his victory over World Champion Ding Liren.
The 18-year-old defeated China's Liren with the black pieces at the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament on Wednesday and surpassed the legendary Viswanathan Anand to take the number one spot.
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Praggnanandhaa said he was surprised with the outcome as he didn't expect the world champion to get ousted in such a fashion.
"I felt I equalized very easily and then somehow things started to go wrong for him. Even after I won the pawn I felt it should be holdable," Praggnanandhaa was quoted as saying by Chess.com.
"I think any day, if you beat such a strong player, it's always special because it's not very easy to beat them. The first time winning against a world champion in classical chess feels good," he added.
Praggnanandhaa, who started playing at the tender age of 5, went on to become India's youngest and the then world's second-youngest Grandmaster at age 12 in 2018.
He is the fifth-youngest person ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster after Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D and Javokhir Sindarov. Incidentally, his elder sister R Vaishali is also a Grandmaster, which makes the siblings the world's first-ever brother-sister GM duo.
In the Masters category, Grandmaster Anish Giri headed into the first rest day as the sole leader in the group. Giri's sensational moves helped him secure a victory over D Gukesh. (ANI)
(The above story is verified and authored by ANI staff, ANI is South Asia's leading multimedia news agency with over 100 bureaus in India, South Asia and across the globe. ANI brings the latest news on Politics and Current Affairs in India & around the World, Sports, Health, Fitness, Entertainment, & News. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)