The historic triumph over Magnus Carlsen always becomes special and brings celebration and higher recognition from important people in a country like India. It was no different for chess prodigy R. Praggnanandhaa when he trumped the Norwegian chess king at 16.
Praggnanandhaa recently shared a hilarious anecdote of what happened when he defeated Carlsen for the first time in 2022 in an online chess game. It was that game that made Praggnanandhaa a household name in India, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cricket legend Sachin Tendulkar among those who posted congratulatory messages on X.
But back in Praggnanandhaa’s own home, the reaction was much more muted.
“Since it was 2 am in the night, at that time my parents were asleep. I went and woke my dad up and said, ‘I won’. He said, ‘Good,’ and then he went back to sleep because he had to go to the office the next day,” Praggnanandhaa said on Raj Shamani’s Figuring Out podcast. Asked what he was thinking, Praggnanandhaa said: “I wasn’t thinking anything. I was just playing, and I got my chance out of nowhere. Everything happened in like a few minutes. It was an online rapid game. I was quite happy.
“I was just excited, like I wasn’t expecting it, and then suddenly… I mean, the game was also going in a trend where he was putting pressure on me, and then suddenly I got my chance. I had to play some accurate moves, which I did, and I won. So, I was just very happy, and then I also didn’t expect so much reaction from outside after that. So that was also, I think, a good thing for the game. I think it brought more attention,” Pragnanandhaa added.
“I was more excited about the fact that I just beat Magnus than the actual game. I didn’t think the game was particularly great or anything like that. I did analyze it later. I realized I didn’t play well. It was like the fifth game of the day or something. We were already tired, and it was obvious that we were not playing our best, but I won, and I think it was important for me back then. It gave me a lot of confidence, and I realized that the top players are not invincible; you can beat them. Until you get that first win, you always feel like they are just in a different world. But once you beat them, you know that it’s possible.
