India’s 16-year-old Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa jumped into the world elite this week when the Tamil Nadu teenager reached the final of the online $150,000 Chessable Masters by bold attacking play. It was the latest and most significant success yet for the former prodigy, who became the youngest ever international master at 11 and narrowly missed the youngest grandmaster title at 12.
The epic quality of the schoolboy’s feat was underlined in his post-match interview after defeating the Netherlands world No 9, Anish Giri, in Tuesday’s semi-final. He calmly stated that it was now 2am on Wednesday in Chennai and that he had to be at school at 8.45am to take his 11th-year board exam in commerce before playing China’s world No 2, Ding Liren, that same evening in the two-day final. “Winning the match would be much nicer than passing the exam,” he said.
