18-year-old Indian chess prodigy to face 'World No. 1' Magnus Carlsen in World Cup finals

Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, 18, secured a place in the final of the FIDE World Cup 2023 after beating USA's Fabiano Caruana, 31, in what was an action-packed semi-finals on Monday.

The final of the mega chess tournament will be played on Tuesday in Baku, Azerbaijan. R Praggnanandhaa will face World Number 1 Magnus Carlsen, who is 32.

During the semi-final clash, R Praggnanandhaa stunned the world number 3, Caruana, after the two-game series ended at 1-1 in Baku. The chess prodigy registered victory after an entertaining tie-breaker. He shocked Caruana 3.5-2.5 via the tie-break.

With that, R Praggnanandhaa became the only second Indian, after the legendary Viswanathan Anand, to enter the summit clash of the FIDE World Cup.

After his stellar victory in the semi-finals, R Praggnanandhaa told the Indian news agency PTI, “I didn’t expect to play Magnus in this tournament at all because the only way I could play him was in the final, and I didn’t expect to be in the final. I will just try to give my best and see how it goes. It feels really good to qualify for the Candidates; I really wanted to fix this spot.”

Meanwhile, Carlsen defeated Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov 1.5-0.5 in his semi-final match.

R Praggnanandhaa was hailed by none other than the Indian chess legend himself.

Claim to fame

In June 2018, the Indian wonder kid became a 'Grandmaster', the highest title a chess player can claim, at the age of 12 years and 10 months.

R Praggnanandhaa scripted history by becoming the youngest Grandmaster in the history of Indian chess. Overall, he was the world’s second youngest Grandmaster to achieve this incredible feat.

Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin holds the record for being the youngest Grandmaster. Karjakin set the record back in 2002 when he was 12 years and seven months old.

After the World Cup, the Indian prodigy is aiming to make waves at the Candidates event next year. The showpiece event will identify the challenger for the reigning World Chess Champion, Ding Liren.

R Praggnanandhaa is the third player to qualify for the Candidates tournament, after Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.

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