Good Sports: Teenager Reaches Final of Chess World Cup
Former world chess champion Vishwanathan Anand won the first two Chess World Cups in 2000 and 2002. Another Tamil Nadu native, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, almost brought another championship to India, reaching the final of the 2023 Chess World Cup, where he lost in rapid tie-breaks to former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen.
At age 18, he became the youngest player to reach the Chess World Cup final, winning six matches in the 206-player single-elimination chess tournament, held in Baku, Azerbaijan.
The chess prodigy, who became a grandmaster at age 12, has beaten Carlsen five times, but only in online matches.
“It’s not like he’s invincible,” Praggnanandhaa told PTI. “He’s definitely strong. But he does lose games. It’s just that he’s consistent in winning.”
More of ChaiTime here:
http://www.khabar.com/magazine/chaitime/
Compiled and partly written by Indian humorist MELVIN DURAI, author of the novel Bala Takes the Plunge.
[Comments? Contributions? We would love to hear from you about Chai Time. If you have contributions, please email us at melvin@melvindurai.com. We welcome jokes, quotes, online clips, and more.]
Enjoyed reading Khabar magazine? Subscribe to Khabar and get a full digital copy of this Indian-American community magazine.
