Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa made history on Thursday as he clinched the silver medal at the FIDE Chess World Cup 2023 after finishing runners-up to world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen in the final in Baku.
The teenage chess prodigy lost the first rapid game of the tiebreak before settling for a draw in the second to settle for second position against the Norwegian chess legend.
Nonetheless, Praggnanandhaa's effort is being lauded by the entire world thanks to the 18-year-old's record-breaking run in the tournament.
Praggnanandhaa's defeated the likes of world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana and world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura to reach the summit clash where he finally met his match in Carlsen, who has now won every major individual classical tournament, and completes chess.
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Even though Praggnanandhaa couldn't win the final, his efforts didn't go unnoticed in a cricket-crazy country like India as famous personalities like Hrithik Roshan, Piyush Goyal and Yuzvendra Chahal took to social media to hail the Chennai-born chess prodigy who became Grandmaster at the age of 13.
R Praggnanandhaa's road to World Cup final:
*Got a bye in first round.
*Defeated French Grandmaster Maxime Lagarde 1.5-0.5 in second round.
*Beat experienced Czech GM David Navara 1.5-0.5 in third round.
*Beat world No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura of USA 3-1 in fourth round.
*Beat Hungarian Ferenc Berkes 1.5-0.5 in fifth round.
*Registered a come-from-behind 5-4 win over compatriot Arjun Erigaisi in the sixth round.
*Beat Italian-American Grandmaster, Fabiano Caruana, ranked third in the world, 3.5-2.5 in the semifinal to become the youngest to reach the summit clash of the World Cup.
