After he received the Uzchess Cup Masters by the top of final month, R. Praggnanandhaa grew to become the World No. 4 (Elo 2779) in the dwell rankings and is consequently the highest-ranked Indian now.
It was his third title of the yr, after wins on the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee and the Superbet Chess Classic in Bucharest. The latter was his maiden Grand Chess Tour (GCT) title.
“This year has been good for me so far. And I hope it continues. We (him and his coach R.B. Ramesh) made some changes in my game, for sure. I think that’s showing the results. Last year, things didn’t go my way. Ramesh and I, we were working, trying to find things to change. And we made some changes. I think those were critical,” mentioned the 19-year-old on the launch of Chola Chess, a CSR initiative from the Cholamandalam Investment and Finance Company Limited, in collaboration with Chess Gurukul, on Wednesday.
Praggnanandhaa, who’s atop the FIDE Circuit leaderboard now, was cautious that the opposite gamers would possibly catch up and harassed the significance of ending because the chief to qualify for the Candidates.
“So, he was joint-first in four tournaments, out of which he didn’t win one. He won the other three. But joint-first in four is already a great start. He’s having a sensational year overall. I think, for him, this year is a reaction to missing out on (winning) the Candidates last year. He’s got that extra motivation,” mentioned Indian chess legend and five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand.
When requested about World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen’s current jibes at reigning World champion D. Gukesh, Anand mentioned: “They come with the territory. You cannot expect to be World champion and say people will just be nice to me. You have to just face that.”
