It is interesting which junior players Magnus invited to the tournament, though - besides Praggnanandhaa, there's also Andrey Esipenko, who _did_ beat Magnus in a classical game once at the prestigious Tata Steel Masters 2021, and also Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who beat Magnus late last year en route to becoming the World Rapid Champion at 17 years old. A fun group! With Vincent Keymer in the mix too, you're only really missing Nihal Sarin and (of course) Firouzja for many of the future faces of chess.
[Edit: the article says that Praggnanandhaa is the youngest player ever to beat Magnus since 2013, which would definitely be newsworthy. I think the article must be leaving out important context, since this tournament is (1) online, (2) speed chess and (3) not FIDE rated, so it typically wouldn't be included in records, and Magnus has almost certainly lost random online games to younger players before. I'm guessing the article is referencing some other source without providing the relevant criteria, which is why it looked a little weird to me.]
https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/chess/magnus-carlse...
He’s also the 6th youngest chess grandmaster ever, so it’s not like he’s a nobody, he’s a legit prodigy. Plus India has traditionally not been a strong chess nation (per capita), but has been up and coming recently, so that adds to the appeal of the story.
Not to mention, Pragg wasn't even the lowest rated player to beat Magnus in this unrated tournament. Eric Hansen is even lower rated than pragg and he beat magnus. Sure hansen is older but so what? Pragg didn't even make it out of the preliminary stage of this tournament while hansen did.
This news story reeks of advertising masquerading as news. India is a potential huge market and it seems like the chess industry paid for this news.
As someone who follows chess, this story is so forced and unbelievable. Pragg came in 11th out of 16 and didn't make it past the first stage. Why turn it into such a huge news story?
If anything, the story should be about how pragg and ding liren have to compete in the middle of the time due to their time zones. The tournament is still going on and they make a huge story out of this? Does not compute.
[Edit] Thanks for the comments, in now way is this meant prejudiced and derogatory, I have worked with many excellent Indian colleagues.
The country normally associated with Chess is Russia, lately India got a huge wave of great talents like Vidit Gujrathi or Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa.
In return, I ask that you understand that your phrasing is prejudiced and derogatory.
Which is why they are in 5th place in world. https://ratings.fide.com/top_federations.phtml
Do you have something against India or Indians? That too a 16 year old Indian kid..
Hopefully that is not part of your CTO coaching..
Perhaps not for most chess aficionados, But I for one don't mind this being blasted all over the news because Indian children have not seen school for two years now and they're hooked on to worthless reality shows & soap operas on television/streaming sites/FB/Instagram/WhatsApp; If this news motivates some of them (or) their parents to direct their attention towards chess even if its just for the prospects of fame then I'm all in for it.
On another note, I like that guy and he is great talent, I followed his games live during the recent Tata Steel tournament (that was real classic chess tournament). He will need to prove himself against other such talents like Firouzja, which I think is around 18 and also very good, ando also that young Hungarian guy has a lot of promise. Hopefully they bring Magnus down soon. ;-)
to 16 year olds?
That's the news.
To be clear, Magnus is still one of the strongest, if not the strongest, players in the world at speed chess, but there's much more variability per game than in classical and at a given format (eg online 3+0, with premoves) probably he's edged out by any number of players.
And Pragg wasn't even the lowest rated player to beat Magnus this tournament! Eric Hansen, aka popular chess streamer "chessbrah", is even lower rated and also beat Magnus, which again you would not expect if Magnus were playing his usual level.
So still a great win and great accomplishment for Pragg, but a little context would have been nice in the article.
[1]: https://mobile.twitter.com/Rameshchess/status/14964993222462...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=loRnvtNLv4w
p.s. warning for uninitiated: Finegold is equal parts comedy and chess teacher. (I love both parts)
I don't comprehend this quote or even the sentence Axios introduced it with. ("asked on Chess24 he'd celebrate"?) What is this saying?
> Interviewer: It must be a big day for you, beating the world champion. Will you sort of have a nice dinner, celebrate at all? Or is it just about going to bed now and get ready for day 3?
> Praggnanandhaa: I think it's about just going to bed, because I don't think I will have dinner at 2:30 in the morning.
Link with timestamp to the quoted bit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1QcPCeq9L14&t=224s
The tournament is scheduled in the Central European Time timezone, while Praggnanandhaa is in India Standard Time. The match in question was scheduled to start at 8:00PM CET, which is 12:30AM IST.
After reading the article I've got more confused. When this is happened? What tournament? Which game format?
Finally I've realized this is just another PR stunt / clickbait / classic media article / yellow journalism and I'm just wasting my time.
I do have one general question, not specific to him. I am just asking what other people think about such a situation. Is there a scientific method to verify the age? Because I have seen my friends reducing their age intentionally to take part in international competitions.
I know there are prodigies, and even if he is not 16 it doesn't matter to me because he beat the world champion. He deserves the accolade :)
Photogenic, media-savvy folks like Magnus or the Bortez sisters, or plenty of other examples are obviously attracting some views due to celebrity, but more people watching serious chess is just that!
Here’s an essay from last year that talks about him, his sister, and the culture of chess in Chennai.
World top 10 is a young man's game I believe but you can never discount a former Super-GM, they are still super strong.
There is a very simple explanation for that - Magnus has COVID right now.
I am not sure whether there is some research about it why is it like that? some diet/belief or some other matter?
Happy to learn more about it.
Dr Abdul Kalam is widely revered in India for his contributions to rocket propulsion, pretty sure he was good at math & physics as well.
Other sources: https://indianexpress.com/article/sports/cricket/age-fraud-i...
https://thewire.in/sport/why-age-fraud-in-indian-sports-is-s...
https://indianexpress.com/article/explained/explained-the-ho...
