Bengaluru: Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu spent the last couple of months focusing on tweaking his mentality and found inspiration in a friend. The 19-year-old had a quiet and somewhat forgettable 2024 and realised his approach perhaps needed an overhaul. A greater degree of ambition, for one.
“I’ve spent time looking at a lot of Arjun’s (Erigaisi) games,” Praggnanandhaa told HT in an interview, “I tried to learn how he plays and take away something from his games. Being ambitious doesn’t have to mean crossing the line. You can be objective. I found many such examples in the games Arjun played last year. He pretty much won everything he played or at least finished in the top three. His style is something that I wanted to incorporate into mine, to find the right balance between my style and his, and try to be universal. That’s what I’m trying to do.”
The work he put in on his mentality and game fetched him the biggest tournament win of his career, last weekend in the Dutch coastal village of Wijk aan Zee. The teen defeated reigning world champion Gukesh in the blitz playoffs to become only the second Indian after five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand to win the Tata Steel Masters.
“It (final round) was a crazy day. I had around thirty minutes between my final classical game and the playoffs. The organisers were kind enough to clear out and allow me to rest in one of the rooms. So, it was just me, Vaishali and our mother in that room. I ate a banana and tried to close my eyes for a bit and rest,” he says, “In blitz rating, I was better placed than Gukesh. But tie-breaks are a sort of a lottery. It’s down to pure nerves and in those few seconds things can go either way.”
What Praggnanandhaa did well in Wijk aan Zee was to recover quickly after losses. Defending a difficult position for hours before losing to Vincent Keymer in the final round (he only needed a draw to win the title outright), and then playing the deciding playoffs soon after, was particularly tough. He lost the first blitz game against Gukesh but rallied to win the next two. “I was just walking back and forth and trying to relax. After I couldn’t make a draw in the classical and then lost the first blitz game, I felt like I had nothing to lose.”
“Against Vincent, more than the loss itself, I was just not happy with my game quality. It really bothered me. It was not enjoyable to sit there and try to defend. More than anything else, I was just exhausted at that point.”
Now ranked seven in the world, Praggnanandhaa, in many ways, was the first of this bunch of top Indian young players to hit the spotlight. In 2016, he became the then youngest International Master at 10 years, 10 months. Now, he’s part of a pack of hungry Indian players, spurring each other.
Unlike last year, Praggnanandhaa wants to have a “less chaotic” year with fewer tournaments and qualify for the Candidates.
“I think Gukesh winning the World Championship last year definitely inspired me,” he says, “You can say it’s one of the reasons I was very motivated for this event. I was playing a lot last year so though I knew a mental shift was needed, there was no time to make changes. The last few months I worked a lot with Ramesh sir not just on my chess but also on my mind and body. I looked at players who are much more ambitious than I am perhaps – Gukesh, Arjun, Abdusattorov. How Arjun played last year inspired me. It’s the reason why we Indian players are all doing well – all of us inspire each other and we are growing together.”
Much like a true friend, Arjun ended up offering Praggnanandhaa a helping hand to the Wijk aan Zee title, defeating Gukesh in the last round. Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa were co-leaders heading into the final day’s play.
“It definitely helped,” Praggnanandhaa laughs, “I couldn’t get Arjun anything after the event. I got him a box of Pringles during the tournament. Though he had a tough tournament, the way he fought in the last two rounds, defeating Gukesh and Abdusattorov shows his mental attitude. People usually try to come back in the middle of the event. Towards the end, you’re more like ‘let’s just make two draws and go home’. During my game, I was trying to assess the position in the Arjun-Gukesh game and later realised I was so wrong. I thought Gukesh was better but the computer said Arjun was just winning. It was just an amazing game which I didn’t understand at all.”
Though they’re rivals, peers, ranked five and seven in the world (live ratings) and chasing essentially the same goals and titles, Praggnanandhaa says his friendship with Arjun remains largely unaffected. “For example, on the last day, Arjun came up to me and said that the game we played in Tata Steel, which he lost, was one of the best in the tournament. People usually don’t really think about the games they lost. He’s just a really nice person and results somehow have never come between us.”
