Cricket Lord Sachin Tendulkar praises Praggnanandhaa for becoming India’s No.1 chess player

Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, the chess prodigy who defeated World Champion Ding Liren to take the top rank among Indian players, was praised by cricket star Sachin Tendulkar on Wednesday. Using his official X (formerly Twitter) account, Tendulkar congratulated Praggnanandhaa on his incredible victory. In addition, he wished the 18-year-old luck in his next games and urged him to represent India proudly in international chess competitions.

“Congratulations to @rpraggnachess for this incredible victory over Ding Liren, the world champion. You have not only become the best player in India at the early age of 18, but you have also dominated the game. Warmest regards for your impending trials. Tendulkar remarked on X, “Continue to bring glory to India in chess on the international stage.” The 18-year-old overcame the renowned Viswanathan Anand to claim the top rank in the chess tournament, the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament, on Wednesday by defeating China’s Liren with the black pieces.

Praggnanandhaa expressed his amazement at the result, saying he didn’t anticipate the world champion to be eliminated in such a manner. “I thought I quickly reached equality, but for him, everything seemed to start going wrong after that. According to Praggnanandhaa, “Even after I won the pawn, I felt it should be holdable,” as Chess.com reported. After beginning to play at the age of five, Praggnanandhaa became the youngest Grandmaster in India and the second-youngest Grandmaster in the world at the age of twelve in 2018. Rank-wise, he is the fifth youngest Grandmaster of all time, behind Abhimanyu Mishra, Sergey Karjakin, Gukesh D, and Javokhir Sindarov. Interestingly, his older sister R Vaishali is also a Grandmaster, hence the two of them are the first brother and sister GM team in history.