CHENNAI: Students at the Chess Gurukul, where Indian GM Praggnanandhaa honed his skills, caught the live action of the FIDE World Cup final tiebreak games featuring their "friend" with great enthusiasm on Thursday evening.
With Gurukul coach RB Ramesh and his wife, Woman Grandmaster Aarthie Ramaswamy, in Romania to conduct a week-long camp, International Master M Kunal, one of the coaches at the centre, took up the responsibility of organizing the screening of the decider.
The students - mostly below the age of 15 - keenly followed the title clash and recreated the moves on their respective boards upon instructions from Kunal. But the happiness of watching Prag play at a big stage slowly turned into agony after the Chennai boy stumbled in the first tie-break.
But they still believed, even when the commentators on a streaming site said that the final was essentially over. As the second tie-break moved towards its end, the academy's wards under- stood that only a miracle would save Prag. And when the moment they feared came a few minutes past 5 pm, they just could not come to terms with the defeat.
When one of the coordinators, who had missed the final stages, asked what had happened, a teenage boy just stared at the screen with a blank expression. Prag's young mates looked devastated, but stressed that their "hero" had already done enough to "inspire" them.
"Prag managed to draw Magnus Carlsen in two classical games. Unfortunately, he lost in the rapid games. We feel a bit down, but we are proud that Prag gave a good fight against Carlsen," said 15-year-old Ananya Raman, who had joined the Gurukul four years ago. "Prag became a Grandmaster at such a young age (12). I have never played against him, but have seen him train at the academy. I have always been inspired by how he goes about his business," added Ananya.
Another student, B Adhithya, said: "Watching his games has been a great learning experience. By looking up to him, I aspire to become one of the best players in the state." Kunal said at least one student in every batch aspired to be "the next Praggu".
