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India’s Chess prodigy R Praggnanandhaa won the hearts of numerous fans around the world when he defeated some giants in the recently concluded FIDE Chess World Cup. The 18-year-old defeated the current World No.2 Fabiano Caruana and World No.3 Hikaru Nakamura on his way to the final. Even though Praggnanandhaa fell short on the final hurdle against Magnus Carlsen, he ran him for money in a tie-breaker.
After his achievements, Praggnanandhaa received a grand welcome back in India and also met Prime Minister Narendra Modi later. Now he has been felicitated by the Sports Minister Anurag Thakur. Thakur praised the Indian star and highlighted that what Praggnanandhaa has done is a huge achievement. “Praggnanandhaa became very mature at a young age, he is mentally tough, his moves are so speedy and the way he has prepared mentally, physically as well as on the chess board is indeed praiseworthy. I want to congratulate him. To become an International Master at 10 and beat (Magnus) Carlsen at 16 is a huge achievement. He has worked hard to achieve a lot of things in the past few years. His parents also have had a huge role to play,” Thakur said on Praggnanandhaa.
Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa will be part of the Indian contingent that will travel to China for the Asian Games in Hangzhou. The 18-year-old also opened on the future challenge. “The last few months I have been doing really well. It gives me a lot of confidence. I think we (India) have very good chances of winning gold,” Praggnanandhaa said.
He was also pleased with the support he is getting. “Very happy that we are getting this support (from the government). In many other countries, players don’t get the support. It (support) is very essential. I’m very happy that chess is growing. As a fan of the sport, I’m happy to see that it’s getting more and more popular,” the Chess star said.
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