Praggnanandhaa Goes No 1 Amongst Indian Players After Defeat Of World Champion Ding Liren

Indian Chess sensation Praggnanandhaa is now ranked number 1 amongst the Indian players after he shocked the world by defeating the World Champion Ding Liren on Tuesday. The Arjuna Awardee has achieved the number 1 rank for the very first time in his career as his antics at the Chess Tournament 2024 are making every Indian chess fan proud.

The teen prodigy has now surpassed Indian chess legend, Vishwanathan Anand to become the number 1 Indian player. He defeated Ding Laren with the black pieces. The Indian sensation was full of ecstasy and even expressed the amount of honour and the challenges he endured.

“The first time winning against a world champion in classical chess feels good. 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,” said Praggnanandhaa.

At the tender age of 5, the chess wizard began his impeccable journey in the sport of chess and has now brought immense laurels and pride to India.

In 2018, Praggnanandhaa became India’s youngest Grandmaster at the age of 12. Adding to the fact that he was merely 12 years old at that time, he became the then world’s second youngest player to do so and now sits as the fifth-youngest person ever to attain the auspicious and prestigious title of the Grandmaster.

Praggnanandhaa isn’t the only one in his family to do the country proud in the family. R Vaishali, his elder sister, is too, a Grandmaster and is doing her bits. They are the world’s first-ever brother-sister to attain the title of Grandmaster.